What was the impact of the French Revolution over England and British culture, politics, literature?

The influence of the French Revolution was great, second only to the influence of the Industrial Revolution.

Before 1789 the English had broadly underestimated the force of the masses and the consequences of a revolution made by the working class. The politicians had even exploited the lower classes to obtain their current objectives: at the time of Walpole the Corporation of the City of London had purposefully inflamed the lower classes against the authority of the Government; at the time of Wilkes there had been no hesitations in using the journeymen for political ends. English radicals were familiar with the ideas of liberty and the rights of men, and they were aware of parliament corruption and decay, but they were profoundly ignorant of the social consequences of a constitution overturned by violence with the aid of the lower classes. The French Revolution left no one in doubt as to the strength of the middle and lower classes. Radical politicians in England had had some kind of consent and indeed – allied with the Whigs – had reached important reforms. After the French Revolution this alliance became impossible and the British radicals started to be viewed with distrust by all the others (even by Burke, the great economic reformer).

Of course there were sympathizers among the left wing of the Whigs. Burke wrote a pamphlet against the Revolution, but radical clubs rose especially in the north and in Scotland. Here rose a revolutionary organization under the leadership of Thomas Hardy.

The government took steps to contrast all the revolutionary organizations in Britain. In 1790 the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, in 1799 a Combination Act was passed. These two measures made the combination of workmen in clubs and societies conspiracy, so they could be arrested and transported. It was the beginning of a series of acts which the manufacturers used to keep wages low and delay the birth of trade unions.

The strength of British reformist tradition was clearly demonstrated in this period, while they passed the Combination Act and fought against France, they passed a series of laws which abolished slavery: in 1772 slavery was declared illegal in England, in 1806 the trade of slaves was abolished, in 1833 slavery was abolished in all British colonies.

In literature the charm of the French Revolution was felt by the two generations of Romantic poets. Intellectual circles of the Aristocratic classes also felt that the values of the Revolution were just and reasonable.

In general in Britain the Revolution helps strengthen the sense of tradition, it also made crystal clear that a stable State was necessary, and that a stable State had to be well governed and ready to compromise, because society was changing.