the rule of law, dismantle their elaborate
constitutional structures, countermand their
own rhetoric and rule by force; or they could
submit to their own rules and surrender their
hegemony … they took halting steps in the
first direction. But in the end, rather than
shatter their own self-image and repudiate
150 years of constitutional legality, they
surrendered to the law.
Put differently, the same forces that made the British elite
not wish to tear down the edifice of the rule of law during the
Black Act also made them shun repression and rule by
force, which would again risk the stability of the entire
system. If undermining the law in trying to implement the
Black Act would have weakened the system that
merchants, businessmen, and the gentry had built in the
Glorious Revolution, setting up a repressive dictatorship in
1832 would have entirely undermined it. In fact, the
organizers of the protests for parliamentary reform were
well aware of the importance of the rule of law and its