Whigs

Whigs. The English Whigs originated as opponents of the succession to the throne of the future James II. Later they provided the most committed supporters of the revolution of 1688. From the 1690s, however, their transformation into a party of government (after 1714 the only party of government) gave them an increasingly oligarchic character, the radical implications of the original Whig appeal to a contract between rulers and ruled being developed only by the minority of commonwealthmen. From the late 1760s the name Whig was revived, in a new, exclusive sense, by followers of the marquis of Rockingham, who attacked what they claimed was a revival of arbitrary royal power and denounced their ministerial opponents as Tories. This new Whig Party opposed the wars against America and revolutionary France (though the latter issue produced a conservative secession led by the duke of Portland), and developed a programme of administrative reform, parliamentary reform, and Catholic emancipation.

In Ireland the defenders of the sole right and opponents of the treaty of Limerick formed an embryonic Whig Party, but clear‐cut party divisions appeared only from 1703–4. As in Britain, Whigs defended ‘Revolution principles’ and advocated tough measures against Catholics and Jacobites. They also advocated tolerance for dissenters in the name of Protestant unity, although given the numerical strength of Irish Presbyterianism, they were notably less enthusiastic than their English counterparts about the admission of dissenters to full political rights.

From 1782 the English Whig Party saw the Ponsonbys as the potential nucleus of a sister party in Ireland. However, it was only after the regency crisis that a Whig Party emerged in the Irish parliament, uniting patriots like Grattan and Charlemont with the Ponsonbys, the earl of Shannon (see Boyle), and other political interests now out of favour. An Irish Whig Club was established in Dublin in June 1789, followed by a Northern Whig Club in Belfast (Feb. 1790), and smaller clubs in other centres. These were generally dominated by aristocrats and landed gentry, although two, the Belfast Whig Club and the Dublin‐based Whigs of the capital, were more middle class in character. Basing themselves on the constitution of 1688 ‘as re‐established in 1782’, the Whigs advocated the reduction of government patronage, the exclusion of office holders from parliament, and financial accountability by the executive to parliament. From 1793 they also advocated parliamentary reform. The parliamentary following, initially 90 or more, slumped to 14 by 1797, as the middle ground of moderate reform had been eroded by sectarian and political polarization. However, some individuals, like Grattan, carried their Whig affiliation into the united parliament after the Act of Union, and George Ponsonby led the party in the Commons during 1808–17.

From the mid–1830s ‘Whig’ was replaced as a party label by Liberal, but was still used to describe aristocratic supporters of moderate reform from above, many of whom moved over the next few decades into the Conservative Party.