Lord John Manners and the Young England Movement: Romanticism in Politics

• Author: Charles H. Kegel
• Published date: 01 September 1961
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296101400305
• Date: 01 September 1961
• Subject Matter: Articles

691

LORD

JOHN

MANNERS

AND

THE

YOUNG

ENGLAND

MOVEMENT:

ROMANTICISM

IN

POLITICS

CHARLES

H.

KEGEL

Idaho

State

College

NE

IMPORTANT

BY-PRODUCT

of

the

Romantic

Movement

was

the

~

nineteenth

century’s

persistent

tendency

to

look

back

at

the

Middle

Ages

with

a

wistful

nostalgia.

Confronted

with

the

tremendous

social,

political,

and

religious

dislocations

which

accompanied

the

industrial

revolution,

many

nineteenth-century

thinkers

longed

for

the

stability

and

unity

which

they

thought

characterized

medieval

life.

Contrasts

of

the

medieval

with

the

modern

-

the

former

always

found

preferable

-

were

common;

and

the

work

of

Cob-

bett,

Southey,

Digby,

Pugin,

Carlyle,

Ruskin,

and

Morris,

to

name

only

a

few,

abundantly

testify

to

the

vitality

with

which

the

resurgence

of

interest

in

the

Middle

Ages

asserted

itself.

At

its

best,

as

in

the

work

of

Ruskin

and

Morris,

this

medieval

enthusiasm

led

toward

a

liberal,

even

radical,

political

orientation;

at

its

worst,

as

in

Southey,

it

led

toward

sheer

reaction.

This

paper

will

describe

the

impact

of

the

new

interest

in

the

Middle

Ages

upon

Lord

John

Manners

and,

through

him,

upon

the

Young

England

Movement,

a

parliamentary

experiment

in

romanticism

which

created

considerable

stir

during

the

eighteen-forties.

Born

in

1818

to

a

noble

family

dating

back

to

the

Norman

Conquest

and

heir

to

the

Dukedom

of

Rutland;

raised

in

Belvoir

Castle,

a

restored

Norman

Gothic

structure;

educated

at

Wick

House,

Eton,

and

Trinity

College,

Cambridge;

Manners

was

an

aristocrat,

a

high

churchman,

and

a

Tory.

At

the

age

of

sixteen

he

read

through

the

three

volumes

of

Hallam’s

Mid-

dle

Ages,’

the

work

which,

according

to

historiographer

Peardon,

was

one

of

the

first

historical

attempts

&dquo;to

give

a

more

adequate

sense

of

the

spirit

and

character

of

the

Middle

Ages.&dquo;

Z With

his

college

friends,

Alexander

Cochrane-Baillie

and

George

Smythe,

both

of

whom

were

destined

to

sit

with

him

in

Parliament

as

the

Young

England

party,

Manners

read

and

discussed

works

favorable

to

the

feudal

principle.

&dquo;They ...

bowed

a

willing

knee,&dquo;

wrote

Manners’

biographer,

&dquo;before

the

lofty

seat

whereon

Sir

Walter

Scott

sat

enthroned.&dquo;

3 Southey

they

accepted

as

a

champion,4

and

Manners’

later

The

Monastic

and

Manufacturing

Systems

indicates

the

special

debt

which

he

owed

to

the

laureate’s

Colloquies,

a

work

which

pleaded

not

only

for

the

establishment

of

Protestant

nunneries

and

monasteries,

but

also

painted

an

attractive

picture

of

the

&dquo;kindly

feelings

and

ennobling

attachments&dquo;

of

the

feudal

structure.5

From

Carlyle

they

learned

&dquo;to

deplore

the

excessive

worship

of

mere

wealth

and

machinery

that

prevailed

1

Charles

Whibley,

Lord

John

Manners

and

His

Friends

(Edinburgh:

Blackwood,

1925),

I,

47.

2

Thomas

Preston

Peardon,

The

Transition

in

English

Historical

Writing

1760-1830

(New

York:

Columbia

University

Press,

1933),

p.

276.

3

Whibley,

op.

cit.,

I,

131.

4

Ibid.,

I,

260.

5

Robert

Southey,

Sir

Thomas

More:

or,

Colloquies

on

the

Progress

and

Prospects

of

Society

(London:

John

Murray,

1829),

I,

60.