parliamentary reform

1784 elections

only 72 contests

date of pitt's proposal

1785 - buy out 36 small boroughs and transfer seats to counties and london

- proposal defeated 248 to 174

reasons for failure of pitts proposal

• opposition from ‘borough-mongers’ (owners of rotten boroughs)

• placemen who feared loss of influence

Eric Evans on pre-reform elections

‘haphazard business’

french recolution date

1789

george iv death

june 1830 - prompted a general election which wellington won

who took power in november 1830

earl grey and the whigs

difficulties in passing the 1832 reform act

first reading of the bill - defeated, gov resigned, ge (whig victory)

second bill - passed through hoc, rejected by hol

third bill - passed through hoc, hol tried to wreck the bill by postponing discussions on the redistribution of seats

what was the outcome of the difficulties in passing the 1832 reform act

asked william iv to create pro-reform peers, resigned when he refused

days of may - prevented wellington returning as pm

grey returns to office, william agrees to create peers but doesn't have to as lords concede

when was the great reform act passed

june 1832

1832 reform act - changes to electorate

increased by 55% from 490,000 to 800,000

1832 reform act - changes to seats

56 rotten boroughs (overrepresented) e.g Old Sarum lost constituency, 30 boroughs e.g St Ives and Grimsby reduced to 1MP, 22 new constituencies created w/ 2 MPs e.g Manchester, Stockport and Leeds

1832 reform act - continuity - pocket boroughs

70 pocket boroughs remained

1832 reform act - continuity - size of electorates

31 boroughs had fewer than 300 voters, whereas manchester leeds and birmingham each had several thousand

1832 - voting qualifications - boroughs

adult males owning or occupying property worth £10 a year

1832 - voting qualifications - counties

adult males owning property worth £2 a year or renting land worth £50 a year

1832 - continuity - power of landed classes

75% of mps elected in dec 1832 were landowners

1832 - change - party organisation

need to have voters' names on electoral register boosted party organisation

what persuaded liberals the respectable working classes could be enfranchised

american civil war (1861-65) caused a cotton famine which impoverished many in lancashire - mill workers were nonetheless unwavering in their support for Lincoln

gladstone's proposal as chancellor

march 1866 - gladstone proposes reducing the borough franchise to £7 and extending county franchise - would add 200,000 voters in boroughs and 170,000 in counties

- bill failed - gov resigned in june (replaced by lord derby + disraeli)

disraeli's initial proposals for 1867 reform act

extend county franchise to those renting land worth £15 a year, extending borough suffrage to all householders of two year's residence

public reaction to first bill of 1867 reform act

6 may - hyde park meeting - 200,000 demanding reform- such a huge demo of popular feeling hadnt been seen since chartism

amendments to 1867 reform act

one year residency qualificatio (not 2), vote extended to lodgers who paid £10 a year, abolished difference between those who paid rates directly to local authoritues and those who paid indirectly

1867 - change - electorate

doubled to 2 million

1867 - change - county franchise

vote given to owners of land worth £5 a year

1867 - change - borough franchise

vote given to all househilders who had lived in a property for 12 months

political impacts of 1867 reform act

liberal victory in 1868

1867 - continuity - over representation of south

southwest had 45 mps, northeast (3x population) had 32

date of the secret ballot act

1872

was the secret ballot act a success?

no - general election in 1880 was the most expensive to date

date of corrupt and illegal practices prevention act

1883

main terms of corrupt and illegal practices prevention act

specified maximum expenditure for constituencies, penalties for corrupt practices, each candidate had one paid election agent who had to produce an official report of expenses

what did gladstone propose in 1884

replace separate and unequal franchises for counties anf boroughs with a single national qualification granted to male householders and £10 lodgers

what happened to gladstone's 1884 bill

passed through hoc, blocked in hol due to intervention of salisbury (feared it would weaken the conservatives)

oct 1884 - arlington street compact - tories would allow the bill to pass as long as it was followed by a redistribution of seats

1884 - changes - electorate

rose by 84% to 5.5 million

1884 - continuity

plural voting - graduates of oxbridge could vote in the constituencies of those unis

terms of redistribution act 1885

focus on creating suburban constituencies (could be relied on to elect conservatives) - wider london area went from 22 seats to 62

when was the property qualification for mps removed?

1858

date of the parliament act

1911

terms of the parliament act

salaries for mps, reduced time between elections to 5 years, prevented lords from rejecting or amending a money bill

what was proposed at the speaker's conference of 1916

all adult males over 21 to be given the vote,along with all men aged 19-20 who had fought in the war, female suffrage (limited)

terms of the 1918 representation of the people act

enfranchised women aged 30 and over (if they were householders or wives of householders, uni graduates or rented property woth £5 a year) , women could now stand for election

first woman to sit in the hoc

nancy astor - 1919

impact of 1918 act

95% of all adult males could vote, aswell as about 8 million women who made up 43% of the electorate

percentage of voters in 1918 who had never voted before

75%

what prompted stanley baldwin to give women the vote

women's organisation in the party was its fasted growing element - one million members

when was equal suffrage achieved

1928

8 million women could vote 1918 to 14.5mill 1928

which case brought abolition of property q to the forefront

1852 - samuel carter (chartist elected for mp but didn't meet q)

1858 - glover, elected, imprisoned for 3 months for lying about property

Attendance at Attwood’s BPU march which united middle and working class

100,000

1832 riots

Bishops palace in Bristol burnt down- 12 killed, Nottingham castle destroyed (1831)

1866 Hyde park reform league meeting

200,000- life guards called on to suppress- 1,400 yard stretch of railing destroyed

March 1867 bill dubbed Disraeli’s…

‘leap in the dark’- PM says a ‘step which would destroy the present agitation and destroy gladstone and co’

Tory PM 1927

stanley baldwin

stephen lee on 1832 reform act

• “It’s essence was really to preserve and strengthen aristocracy by removing from it the taint of oligarchy”

Pale of constitution speech

gladstone 1864

when was reform league formed

1865- widespread backing

reform union vs reform league

household suffrage vs universal manhood suffrage

adullamites

anti-reform faction of liberals e.g Robert lowe

link between property and suffrage

idea of ‘stake’ in the nation, Lord Durham- ‘to property and good order we attach numbers’

Problems of representation in 1790

• no standardisation of the size and type of constituency- e.g counties have 2 MPs regardless of population whilst Oxford and Cambridge had 2 MPs each

• Rotten boroughs e.g Old Sarum - 7 voters, whilst only 43 of 202 parliamentary boroughs in 1830 had populations of over 1,000, no rep of new industrial cities

• geographical imbalance of distribution of seats- Rural Cornwall (300k pop) sent 42 MPs vs urbanised Lancashire sent 14 (1.3mill)