The Waning of `Old Corruption'

There is as yet no thorough explanation for the persistence of the political authority of a narrow and mostly landed lite throughout nineteenth-century Britain. This book addresses this gap in the historical record and provides an important part of that explanation. Philip Harling argues that the mostly Pittite governing lite managed to allay widespread suspicions of political favouritism and corruption by reducing and redistributing the tax load and by cutting down on the advantages available to privileged insiders.