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*[[Sir William Molesworth, 8th Baronet|William Molesworth]]
*[[Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet|Charles Dilke]]}}
| predecessor = [[Country Party (Britain)|Country Party]]<br />[[Levellers]]<br />[[Radical Whigs]]
| foundation = {{start date|1750s}}
| dissolution = {{end date|1859}}
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| newspaper = {{plainlist|
*''[[The Westminster Review]]''
*''[[The Black Dwarf (journal)|The Black Dwarf]]''}}
| wing1_title = [[Grassroots|Grassroots wing]]
| wing1 = [[Hampden Clubs]]
| ideology = [[Radicalism (historical)|Radicalism]]<br/>'''Factions:'''<br/>Pro-[[American Revolution]]<br/>[[Jacobinism]] {{small|(1790–1804)}}<br/>[[Chartism]] {{small|(1838–1859)}}<br/>[[Utilitarianism]]
| position = [[Left-wing politics|Left-wing]]<ref>{{cite book|editor=Alan Sykes |title=The Rise and Fall of British Liberalism: 1776-1988 |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge }}</ref><ref name="radical">{{cite book|editor=James Frey |title=The Indian Rebellion, 1857–1859: A Short History with Documents |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EXP6DwAAQBAJ&dq=leftist+%22Radicals%22+Britain+1859&pg=PR30 |quote= British politics of the first half of the nineteenth century was an ideological spectrum, with the Tories, or Conservative Party, on the right, the Whigs as liberal-centrists, and the radicals on the left. |date=2020 |page=XXX |publisher=Hackett Publishing|isbn=9781624669057 }}</ref>
| colours = {{color box|{{party color|Radicals (UK)}}|border=darkgray}} [[Red (color)|Red]]
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{{Liberalism UK|Parties}}
{{Radicalism sidebar|groups}}
The '''Radicals''' were a loose parliamentary political grouping in [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Great Britain and Ireland]] in the early to mid-19th century who drew on earlier ideas of [[radicalism (historical)|radicalism]] and helped to transform the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]] into the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]].
== History ==
=== Early Radicals ===
The [[Radicalism (historical)|Radical]] movement arose in the late 18th century to support parliamentary reform, with additional aims including lower taxes and the abolition of [[sinecures]].<ref>Evans 2000, pp. 10, 98.</ref> [[John Wilkes]]'s reformist efforts in the 1760s, as editor of ''[[The North Briton]]'' and as an MP, were seen as radical at the time, but support dropped away after the [[Massacre of St George's Fields]] in 1768. Working class and middle class "Popular Radicals" agitated to demand the right to vote and assert other rights, including freedom of the press and relief from economic distress, while "[[Philosophical Radicals|Philosophic Radicals]]" strongly supported parliamentary reform, but were generally hostile to the arguments and tactics of the Popular Radicals. However, the term "Radical" itself, as opposed to "reformer" or "Radical Reformer", only emerged in 1819 during the upsurge of protest following the successful conclusion of the Napoleonic War.<ref>[[Élie Halévy]], ''The Liberal Awakening'' (London 1961) pp. 67–68.</ref> [[Henry Hunt (politician)|Henry "Orator" Hunt]] was the main speaker at the Manchester meeting in 1819 that ended in the [[Peterloo Massacre]]; Hunt was elected MP for the [[Preston (UK Parliament constituency)|Preston]] division in 1830–1832. The "root and branch" of the reforms which the adjective radical suggests, and at the time still strongly in concept denoted by reference to all its previous main uses, is the [[British constitution]], which is not codified or restricted to particular customs, laws or documents.
=== Radicals and the Great Reform Act ===
Radicals inside and outside Parliament were divided over the merits of the Whig [[Reform Act 1832]]. Some continued to press for the ballot and universal suffrage,<ref>Élie Halévy, ''The Triumph of Reform'' (London 1961) pp. 25–27</ref> but the majority (as mobilised in unions like the [[Birmingham Political Union]]) saw abolition of the [[rotten boroughs]] as a major step towards the destruction of what they called "Old Corruption" or "The Thing": "In consequence of the boroughs, all our institutions are partial, oppressive, and aristocratic. We have an aristocratic church, an aristocratic bar, an aristocratic [[Hunting and shooting in the United Kingdom|game-code]], aristocratic taxation....all is privilege".<ref>J. Wade, 1831, quoted in M. Dorothy George, ''Hogarth to Cruikshank'' (London 1967) p. 169.</ref>
The 1832 parliament elected on the new franchise – which raised the percentage of the adult population eligible to vote from some 3% to 6%<ref>Élie Halévy, ''The Triumph of Reform'' (London 1961) pp. 27–29</ref> – contained some fifty or sixty Radicals. This number shortly doubled in the 1835 election, leading many to envisage a House of Commons eventually divided between Radicals on the one side and
In fact, the Radicals failed either to take over an existing party, or to create a new, third force and there were three main reasons. The first was the continuing strength of Whig electoral power in the half-century following the 1832 Act. The latter had expressly been designed to preserve Whig landlord influence in the counties and the remaining small borough<ref>H. J. Hanham, ''The Reformed Electoral System in Great Britain'' (London 1968) pp. 12–15, 31.</ref> – one reason a radical like [[Henry Hetherington]] condemned the bill as "an invitation to the shopocrats of the enfranchised towns to join the Whiggocrats of the country".<ref>Quoted in Evans 2000, p. 101.</ref> Whigs were also able to profit in two-member constituencies from electoral pacts made with a more reforming candidate.<ref>Evans 2000, p. 71.</ref>
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By 1866, with agitation from [[John Bright]] and the [[Reform League]], the Liberal Prime Minister [[Lord John Russell|Earl Russell]] introduced a modest bill which was defeated by both Tories and reform Liberals, forcing the government to resign. A [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] minority government led by the [[Edward Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby|Earl of Derby]] and [[Benjamin Disraeli]] took office and introduced the [[Reform Act 1867]] – which almost doubled the electorate, giving many working men the vote – in a somewhat opportunistic party fashion.<ref>H. J. Hanham, ''The Reformed Electoral System in Great Britain'' (London 1968) pp. 4, 11.</ref>
Further Radical pressure led to the [[Ballot Act 1872]] and the [[Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act 1883|Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act]] of 1883, followed by the [[Representation of the People Act 1884]].<ref>Evans 2000, pp. 63, 67.</ref> Progressive liberals like [[John Morley]] and [[Joseph Chamberlain]] continued to value radicalism as a unifying bridge between the classes, and a common goal.<ref>{{cite journal|first=John|last=Vincent|title=John Morley|journal=History|volume=54|year=1969|page=316}}</ref> However, in 1886 Chamberlain helped form the breakaway [[Liberal Unionist Party]] that mostly supported Conservative governments. The long career of [[David Lloyd George]] saw him moving from radical views in the 1890s to becoming Prime Minister in a postwar coalition with the Conservatives in 1918. From 1900 and the rise of the Labour Party and the gradual achievement of the majority of the original Radical goals, Parliamentary Radicalism ceased to function as a political force in the early twentieth century.<ref>M. L. Henry, "Radicals", in S. H. Steinberg ed., ''A New Dictionary of British History'' (London 1963) p. 300.</ref>
=== Disappearance as a political party ===
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* ''[[Beauchamp's Career]]'' (1875), a satirical novel written by [[George Meredith]]. It portrays life and love in upper-class Radical circles and satirises the Conservative establishment.
* [[Anthony Trollope]] offered a more shaded view in his outline for ''[[The Way We Live Now]]'' (1875), describing his anti-hero as "A scapegrace. Has glimmerings of Radical policy for the good of the people".<ref>M. Sadleir, ''Anthony Trollope'' (London 1945) p. 422.</ref> Economically liberal and laissez-faire, Trollope finds non-radicalism bucolic, extolling the rural county of [[Suffolk]]: "The people are hearty, and radicalism is not quite so rampant as it is elsewhere. The poor people touch their hats, and the rich people think of the poor."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5231/5231-h/5231-h.htm|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of the Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope|publisher=Gutenberg}}</ref>
* ''[[The Difference Engine]]'' (1990), an alternative history ("[[Steampunk]]") novel by [[William Gibson]] and [[Bruce Sterling]], partially based on ''[[Sybil, or The Two Nations]]'' by [[Benjamin Disraeli]], which includes a fictional Industrial Radical Party.
== Prominent Radicals ==
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[Thomas Attwood (economist)|Thomas Attwood]]
* [[William Beckford (politician)|William Beckford]]
* [[Edward Spencer Beesly]]
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