The three Reform Acts,
of 1832, 1867, and 1884, all extended voting rights to previously disfranchised
citizens. The first act, which was the most controversial, reapportioned
representation in Parliament in a way fairer to the cities of the industrial
north, which had experienced tremendous growth, and did away with "rotten"
and "pocket" boroughs like Old Sarum, which with only seven voters (all
controlled by the local squire) was still sending two members to Parliament.
This act not only re-apportioned representation in Parliament, thus making
that body more accurately represent the citizens of the country, but also
gave the power of voting to those lower in the social and economic scale,
for the act extended the right to vote to any man owning a household worth
£10, adding 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000. Approximately
one man in five now had the right to vote. For many conservatives, this
effect of the bill, which allowed the middle classes to share power with
the upper classes, was revolutionary in its import. Some historians argue
that this transference of power achieved in England what the French Revolution
achieved eventually in France. Therefore, the agitation preceding (and
following) the first Reform Act, which Dickens observed at first hand as
a shorthand Parliamentary reporter, made many people consider fundamental
issues of society and politics.
The 1867 Reform Act extended the right to vote
still further down the class ladder, adding just short of a million voters--including
many workingmen--and doubling the electorate, to almost two million in
England and Wales. It, too, created major shock waves in contemporary
British culture, some of which appear in works such as Arnold's Culture
and Anarchy and Ruskin's Crown of Wild Olive, as authors debated whether
this shift of power would create democracy that would, in turn, destroy
high culture. The 1884 bill and the 1885 Redistribution Act tripled the
electorate again, giving the vote to most agricultural laborers.
By this time, voting was becoming a right rather than the property of the
privileged. However, women were not granted voting rights until the Act
of 1918, which enfranchised all men over 21 and women over thirty. This
last bit of discrimination was eliminated 10 years later (in 1928) by the
Equal Franchise Act.
Terms of the 1832 Reform Act
Marjorie Bloy, Lecturer in History, Rotherham
College of Arts and Technology
Disenfranchisement Clauses
56 nomination or rotten boroughs returning
111 MPs lost their representation
30 boroughs with less than 4,000 inhabitants
lost one MP each
Weymouth and Melcombe Regis gave up two
of their four MPs
Enfranchisement
65 seats were awarded to the counties
44 seats were distributed to 22 larger
towns including Birmingham, Manchester,
Leeds, Sheffield and the new London metropolitan
districts
21 smaller towns were given one MP each
Scotland was awarded 8 extra seats
Ireland was given 5 extra seats
Franchise Qualification
The borough franchise was regularised. The right
of voting was vested in all householders paying a yearly rental of £10
and, subject to one year residence qualification £10 lodgers (if
they were sharing a house and the landlord was not in occupation).
In the counties, the franchise was granted to:
40 shilling freeholders
£10 copyholders
£50 tenants
£10 long lease holders
£50 medium lease holders
Borough freeholders could vote in the
counties if their freehold was between
40 shillings and £10, or if it was
over £10 and occupied by a tenant.
The Reform Act Crisis
Marjorie Bloy, Lecturer in History, Rotherham
College of Arts and Technology
lthough men such as John Wilkes and Major John
Cartwright had made demands for the reform of parliament in the 1760s there
had been no systematic reform made in the eighteenth century. Certainly
after the French Revolution, no Prime Minister in Britain was prepared
to advocate parliamentary reform. The Whig opposition, however, took the
issue as one of their electoral platforms and Earl Grey and began to press
for a major Reform Bill as early as 1793.By 1830 two major constitutional
changes had been made: the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts and
the passing of Catholic Emancipation. Both these pieces of legislation
were put through parliament by Wellington's government with the assistance
of Peel, his leader in the House of Commons.Following his election success
in November 1830, the Duke of Wellington was forced to resign after making
a speech in which he pledged not only not to introduce any measure for
parliamentary reform but also to oppose any reform proposals. Grey formed
a ministry hich was pledged to introducing a Reform Bill and he asked Lord
John Russell to prepare the legislation. On 1 March 1830 the Bill was presented
to the House of Commons, passing its second reading by only one vote at
the end of the month. The overnment was then defeated on an amendment to
the Bill and Grey resigned. The ensuing general election was fought solely
on the question of reform and saw the return of the Whigs with a massive
majority. Grey took this to be a mandate for continuing with the proposals.
Since the first Bill had not passed through all the required stages of
debate and vote, committee and discussion by the time the parliamentary
session had ended in the summer of 1831, Russell had to introduce a new
Bill in the new session. This ssed the Commons but was defeated in the
House of Lords on 8 October 1831. The House of Lords was dominated by the
Tories, led by the Duke of Wellington; the Lords deliberately rejected
the Bill because the legislation was intended to curtail the power that
the Lords previously had exercised over the election of MPs. Grey was reluctant
to ask parliament to discuss the issue of reform yet again but Thomas Attwood
and other leaders of the Political Unions organised a huge campaign to
demand the passing of the legislation. There were outbreaks of violence
in Derby, Nottingham, London and Bristol. Grey attempted to defuse the
situation by agreeing to the introduction of
a third Bill. The terms of this Bill were so new that only Russell knew
what it contained: he was still attempting to dry the ink on the paper
as he entered the Commons to present the proposals. This third Bill passed
the Commons and was sent to the Lords on 26 March 1832. The Lords threatened
to reject it so Grey resigned. Wellington attempted to form a ministry
but was unable to form a Front Bench in the Commons because Peel refused
to join the Duke. William IV sent for Grey who agreed to resume office
but only on the condition that the king would create sufficient new Peers
to ensure the passage of the Bill through parliament.Whilst the politicians
argued and bargained the people resorted again to violence. The Duke of
Wellington, always eager to avoid bloodshed, ordered the Tory Lords either
to vote for the Bill or to absent themselves from the session when the
vote was taken. Over two hundred Tory Lords missed the vote and the Bill
passed through the House of Lords on 7 June 1832.Although the legislation
is referred to as the "Great Reform Act" its terms - although far reaching
at the time - were quite moderate.