广西大学本科毕业论文（设计）
The greater application of capital to agriculture produced a further increase in the size of farms. Between 1851 and 1871 farms of all sizes below 100 acres decreased in number while farms of 300 acres and over increased from 11,018 to 13,006, the greatest proportional increase being in those of over 500 acres.
This period of prosperity lasted till the end of the short boom which followed the Franco-Prussian War. It then ended abruptly and a long depression set in with the arrival of American wheat and Australian wool in bulk. The improvement in the condition of the labourers ended much earlier when the rise in prices produced by the influx of Californian and Australian gold brought about a steady decline in real wages.
The simultaneous prosperity of industry and agriculture is the explanation of the remarkable absence of the open conflict between manufacturers and landowners in the twenty years which followed the repeal of the Corn Laws. No great political issues divided the different sections of the ruling class till the resurgence of the Reform agitation in the sixties. Politics became a pleasant game, as in the Eighteenth Century, which with Palmerston, embodiment of all the most conservative aspects of Whiggery, as presiding genius. The Great Exhibition of 1851, intended to usher in an era of universal peace but in fact followed by a new round of European wars, did nevertheless prelude in England a period of extraordinary social stability in which the details of political events became of far less interest than the steadily mounting statistics of exports imports or the leaping and bounding of the income tax returns.
It was, par excellence, the Victorian Age.
3. Foreign Politics: Palmerston to Disraeli
The principles underlying Liberal foreign policy in the middle third of the Nineteenth Century were extremely simple. They were the principles of the ?inspired bagman?, the man with goods to sell. Behind the screen of a navy far larger than that of any rival Power the economic penetration of the British Empire and of the Far East was pushed ahead. In Europe all serious entanglements were avoided as far as possible, British influence being only exerted to prevent any one Power from securing a predominating position. The more powerful States were treated with the utmost circumspection; and the smaller ones were bullied whenever bullying seemed likely to be profitable.
The embodiment of this policy was Lord Palmerston, who reigned almost without interruption at the Foreign Office from 1830 to 1865. In home affairs he belonged to the most reactionary section of the Whigs. In foreign affairs ha has enjoyed an entirely undeserved reputation for Liberalism. Marx, in 1853, after a careful study of all the information then available declared bluntly that “Palmerston has been sold to Russia for several decades.” Whatever the truth of this may be, and it is still impossible to arrive at any certainty, it is at
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广西大学本科毕业论文（设计）
least clear that the policy followed by Palmerston did play into the hands of Russia.
He encouraged the Poles to revolt in the expectation of help from England and then betrayed them, much as he encouraged and betrayed the Danes in 1864. He approved the sending of Russian troops to crush the Hungarian Revolution in 1848. His support of the revolution in Italy may have been the result of an appreciation of the fact that the unification of Italy would weaken Austria and so, indirectly, strengthen Russia. During the revolt of the mountain tribes of Circassia around 1850 Palmerston played a part not unlike that of Sir Samuel Hoare during Mussolini?s recent conquest of Abyssinia. It was Palmerston, too, who hastened to recognise Napoleon III after his coup d’état in December 1851, and Palmerston who bears the heaviest responsibility for the predatory wars upon China in 1840 and 1860. Nevertheless it was probably inevitable that England and Russia should clash after 1850. The failure of the revolutionary movement throughout Europe, a failure largely the result of Russian intervention, had left Russia without a rival on the Continent. Austria was decadent and bankrupt; Germany still divided into a patchwork of minor States which had not yet submitted to the primacy of Prussia; France, where the struggled had been most severe, still disturbed. Russia was “the great stronghold, reserve position and reserve army of European reaction.”
What was more to the point immediately, the advance of Russia threatened the interests of the British bourgeoisie in two directions. First in Asia, where Turkestan was being devoured in giant bites. Already the Russian advance towards India was causing alarm, since India was now becoming the keystone of the whole structure of British industry and finance.1
The direct threat to India was perhaps remote in 1850: the threat through Turkey was more immediate. With the development of the steamship the Mediterranean route to India and the East had once more become important. Steamers still had great difficulty in using the Cape route, and there was still a lack of coaling facilities. From about 1835, therefore, regular steamship lines were running from England to Alexandria and from Suez to India. The Suez
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On the other hand, British exports to inner Asia grew rapidly from about 1850 at the expense of Russia.
Canal was not opened till 1869 but plans for its construction were already well advanced. The growing importance of this corner of the Mediterranean is at least one good reason for the keen interest shown by both Russia and Britain in the Holy Places at Jerusalem round about 1850.
Russian penetration into Turkey would not only have placed her astride of the route to India; it would also have made her predominant in the Eastern Mediterranean where both France and Britain had considerable direct interests, while the presence of Russian troops on the Danube would have turned her already strong position in Central Europe into one of unquestioned mastery . The Turkish Empire at this time extended over the whole of the Balkan Peninsula,
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广西大学本科毕业论文（设计）
but its hold was weakening and strong movements of national revolt were growing among the Serb, Bulgar and Roumanian populations. It was part of the policy of Tsarism to capture these movements and use them to weaken both Turkey and Austria.
Entirely selfish as were the movies of Britain and France in waging the Crimean War, a Russian victory would have been a disaster for progress and democracy throughout Europe. It was some realisation of this which made the war extremely popular in England, the main opposition coming from the Bright-Cobden group. It was absurd and hypocritical enough for the exploiters of India and Ireland or the sharks and adventurers who supported Napoleon the Little to inveigh against Tsarist tyranny, but among the masses, in whose minds the fate of Poland and Hungary was fresh, hatred of Tsarism was both genuine and generous.
The pretended reasons for the war, the guardianship of the Holy Places and the treatment of Christian minorities in Turkey, were entirely trivial. It was characteristic of the prolonged discussions that preceded the outbreak of war that the British Government, having agreed to terms with Russia, proceeded to induce the Turkish Government to reject them, by unofficial assurances, made through Lord Stratford de Redcliffe the Ambassador at Constantinople, of naval and military support in the event of war. ...
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广西大学本科毕业论文（设计）
附录2: 译文
英国人民史
——A.L.莫尔顿 著
十三 自由党的得势
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在这种情形之下，保守党获得了1841年选举的胜利，并组成了以皮尔为首的内阁。地主们如释重负，但是经济上的需求很快将新内阁推上了自由贸易和废除谷物法的道路。
2 谷物法
1815年出台的谷物法是英国的地主们作为一个阶级的最后一次彻底的胜利，但是它也是一种自杀性的胜利，因为谷物法不可避免地将他们与其他的阶级隔离出来，并且使得工业家们得以用虚伪的姿态装作全体人民的守护者，来对抗自私、垄断的少数派。直白地说，谷物法的目的就是要保持小麦的价格，达到拿破仑战争时期由于全部或部分来自波兰和法国的粮食无法运到英国而产生饥荒时的水平。1当价格低于每夸特五十先令时，所有小麦的进口就会被禁止。
从谷物法成立一开始，除了地主和农民以外，任何人都很恨它，甚至农民们也发现，事实上小麦的价格波动非常猛烈，并且市场常被人所操纵，以至于抢夺了他们所期待获得的利润。在1828年和1842年企图引进调节制来改进谷物法的尝试，也以失败告终。反对谷物法以及要求议会改革的声浪，在彼得卢时期遍布各地，但在1820年之后逐渐沉寂下来，而随着1837年的工业萧条开始，这些声音又重新复苏起来。这次的骚动与其说是出于人民大众，倒不如说是出于急切希望降低劳动成本的工业资产阶级。
自从1838年科布顿和布莱特组建了反谷物法联盟，它就在和宪章派争夺着对工人阶级的领导权。马克思在1848年写道:“人民把那些勇于自我牺牲的绅士们，把包令、布莱特及其同伙这一类人，看成自己最大的敌
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即使是在战事最剧烈的1811年拿破仑战争时期，拿破仑也迫于法国北部农民的穷困而不得不允许谷物出口往英国。在其他年份，这种贸易经常被当局故意装作没看见。
人和最无耻的伪君子。在英国，每个人都知道，自由派和民主派之间的斗争被称为自由贸易派和宪章派之间的斗争。”宪章派组织了反对反谷物法联盟的示威游行，让联盟的发言人直面他们生活状况中的许多事实，并且使得反谷物法联盟在一些工业市镇中除了能召开其拥护者凭票入场的集会以外，无法举行其它任何集会。最近在研究谷物法的历史学家费伊，叙述了在1842年的夏天发生的事，在著名的兰开夏郡，激动的反谷物法联盟演说家都变成了脸色苍白的警察。代表们离开伦敦去往英格兰北部，去为女王陛下维持那里的治安，而皮尔和格莱安(保守党内阁的内务大臣)也都是为女王服务的。”
尽管如此，宪章派的骚动使反谷物法联盟和保守党之间的争吵就如儿童之间叽叽喳
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广西大学本科毕业论文（设计）
喳的交谈，这是促成废除谷物法的最有力因素之一。在革命的威胁之下，统治阶级下各个敌对的集团都被迫暂时放下他们的争执，并且除了废除谷物法，还通过了一个工厂法，一个煤矿法和1847年的十小时工作日法案。相比起“腐烂的马铃薯”，工人阶级更能“让皮尔吓得要命”。
如果认为反谷物法联盟的宣传鼓动在工人中间没有产生影响，那同样是错误的。反谷物法联盟运动的规模是空前的，也是不惜重金投资的(1843年募集的款项达十万英镑，散发的传单达九百万份)，还享有铁路、廉价报纸和一便士邮政所能提供的一切便利。无论科布顿或布莱特何时发言，他们的言论都会被许多家报纸广泛地报道，同时，反谷物法联盟的演说家也能够轻易地迅速游走于全国各地。他们有着皮姆、甚至科贝特所永远想象不到的便利，来传播自由贸易的信条。
根据这来自外界的持续的压力，和众所周知的事实，人们逐渐明白，人口的增长已使得英国的粮食无法自给自足，人们必须随着1841年后皮尔犹豫不决地走向自由贸易的步伐继续探索。
其中的第一步是由皮尔从辉格党手中接过的混乱的财政所决定的。大量的关税和其他各种税被废除，取而代之的是一种更简单更富有成效的所得税，并且从长远来看减轻了工业上的负担。这些关税是属于工业方面的，并不被支持皮尔的地主们所维护。
但是不论有意或无意，废除这些关税的影响，使得谷物法成为一种孤立的反常现象，愈发显眼和难以维护。
这些年里，皮尔似乎已对当时的形势进行了彻底地研究，并且他意识到，地主们普遍相信的所谓波罗的海沿岸的谷仓里存放着大量的准备向英国倾销的小麦的说法，纯属无稽之谈。他知道一些双方都很少人知道的情况，即任何国家的粮食出口剩余量都很小，废除谷物法所能起到的最大作用就是防止另一种不可避免的物价上涨，而物价上涨可能会导致革命性的后果。因此，他有备而来，当爱尔兰的饥荒给他提供一个借口的时候，他便将违背大多数支持他的人的意愿，强制通过谷物法废除法案。
然而，在做到这一点之前，英国就发生了一个带着重大后果的政治危机。1845年冬，面对保守党内部的反抗，皮尔选择了辞职。曾迫于反谷物法联盟的步伐而宣称主张彻底废除谷物法的辉格党，开始着手组织起内阁。突然间，凭借着微妙的借口，约翰·罗素勋爵宣布他将不再组织内阁，而是把组阁的责任交还给皮尔。这一回，这种政治上无耻懦弱的行为受到了不可抵挡的报应。罗素迫使皮尔废除了受到辉格党支持的谷物法，促成了保守党内部的分裂，使得它在此后的二十年间陷于孤立无援的境地。
一个年轻的不很出名的犹太人政治家本杰明·迪斯累里领导了对皮尔的反抗，迪斯累里在帝国主义时代的初期重建了保守党，从此保守党的主体已不再是地主阶级的政党而是财政资本家新势力的政党了。1850年皮尔去世的时候，一些主张自由贸易的保守党分子加入了辉格党。其中有威廉·尤尔特·格莱斯顿，当时他已经四十一岁了。
谷物法在1846年6月被废除，少数的临时性关税保留到了1849年。它的影响远非当初预料的那样。粮价并没有降低，事实上1851-1855年这五年之间的平均粮价为五十六先令，而在1841-1845年的五年之间仅为五十四先令九便士。这是由一系列的原因造
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