British Parliamentary Reform in the 19th Century

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British ParliamentaryReform in the 19th Century

British Parliaments in the late 18th Century did not representdemocracies in the way that we would expect a parliament to dotoday - indeed it is unlikely that many Parliamentarians wouldhave wished for this sort of representation to occur. Regularelections were usually used as a confirmation of a ministry'spower rather than an attempt to change it. Electors did not votefor parties in the modern sense and many elections wereuncontested. Generally ministers were chosen by the King. Thischoice was based on a variety of factors including personal whimand whether they would support his preferred policies. Parliamentdid have power over the King, mostly invested in the bargainingthat would result over payment of royal expenses and the CivilList. Government was also localised: it did not deal with economicmanagement, health and education, for example. Parliaments and

governments maintained a laissez faire attitude, encouraginglimited control on the country other than through taxation anddevelopment of the laws of the land.

Parliamentary Reform and its Developmentas an Idea

The idea for reform was a slow process that took a lot of time togerminate, develop and become a political entity. In the mid-18thCentury there were reformist ideas, but the idea of reform reallybegan to gain prominence as a result of developmentsinFranceand America, and as a result of the 100-yearanniversary of the Glorious Revolution in 1788. Groups were set
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up that discussed notions based on influential pamphlets andwritings such as Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man. However,the discussion was neither widespread nor generally composed ofthose who held power at that time - namely the landed gentry and

the aristocracy.The reformers caused those in power some concern, however,and were repressed by a series of measures including a ban onpolitical meetings without the presence of a magistrate, and lawspreventing criticism of the monarchy and government. By 1799,aside from a few dedicated Whigs, reform was no longer on theagenda, partly because of these measures and partly due to warin France.

The Clamour for Reform

The end of the war (1815) did not produce prosperity. Continuedheavy taxation and The Corn Laws (1815) accentuated thepoverty of the common people particularly by pushing up the priceof bread. The Corn Laws demonstrated that where thegovernment had an interest, it was possible and permissible to

interfere with the economy of the state. Many in the middlingclasses were expressing some dissent about these issues butthey also felt undermined by radical protest in the provinces, andwere scathing of such unlawfulness. The Peterloo Massacre, inwhich 11 were killed and many injured, was an example of therepression of demonstrations carried out . Many otherdemonstrations occurred inBirmingham,Manchesterand othernewly-industrialised towns.

By 1820 prosperity began to increase and immediate concernabout Parliamentary reform was lessened throughout the mid-1820s. In 1828 Wellington introduced the Catholic Relief Act thatproved unpopular among fellow Tories. The government was leftweak and this, as well as an economic depression, led to hisresignation. Reform again became an issue in the provinces.
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IV to create more peers or to make changes to the Bill. He chosethe latter.

The revised Bill was introduced in December 1831. It passed

through the Commons and then returned to the Lords. A crisisensued when the Tories tried to enforce further amendments.Grey would not stand for this and asked the King to create peers,which would allow the standing Commons to govern with anappropriate majority in both houses, if necessary. When the Kingrefused, Grey resigned.

Wellington was invited to form an administration but could not so

Grey was asked to return. The King eventually had to agree, inprinciple, to create peers. However, the threat of this happeningwas enough to push the Bill through and it finally received Royal

Assent on 7 June, 1832. The Bill was finalised and has sincebeen described as The Great Reform Act.

The Great Reform Act (1832)

The Act abolished many rotten or 'pocket' boroughs - their seatsbeing redistributed to form constituencies in new towns. Somelarge towns such as Manchester and Birmingham had not beenrepresented until this point. The franchise was extended to allhouseholders at 10 or over and to those 50 leaseholders.However, the situation for voting in the counties remained asbefore.

Some historians debate whether the threat of revolution was realor imagined, and how much this threat influenced overalldecisions.

In the aftermath, the House of Commons remained largelyaristocratic in composition. Fourty four percent of members were


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landed gentry or aristocrats in 1865. This was due to manyfactors, including the expense of elections together with anincreased cost in buying votes. Violence was also increasinglycommon in elections. An unseen by-product of the Bill was that

political parties were stronger than before and the party couldusually impose ministers on the monarch (because thisencouraged a stronger feeling that elections were a symbol of thewill of the people).

Chartism

This was a movement for political reform formed to advocate the

People's Charter of 1838 - an internationally acknowledgedstatement of working-class political 'rights' which was conceivedin London. The movement formulated proposals calling foruniversal male suffrage, annual parliaments, payment of MPs,vote by ballot and abolition of property qualifications for MPs.

A national convention met in 1839 and a petition, ultimatelyrejected, was produced at the Commons by radical MP Attwood.

The movement showed signs of splits in its intentions but in 1842it established a further petition that was also rejected. 1848 sawagitation all over Europe and many Chartist demonstrations. Aftera huge demonstration in London a third petition was produced in1848. This was again rejected and the movement founderedbecause of poor leadership and mixed views over aims.

Public perceptions altered when it was discovered that the last of

these petitions contained many false names. However, theChartist movement generally was important in establishing ideasthat were later essential to the process of Parliamentary Reform.

The Move for Further Reform


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The Repeal of the Corn Laws by Peel was seen as important toreform as he rejected going to the electorate over the issue, thusdemonstrating his belief that Parliament had supremacy overpolicy, even though this split his party. This established for many

the idea that there was a need for further reform, while reinforcingfor others the need to confirm the status quo.

In 1858, MPs removed the property qualifications required formembers to stand as these were largely irrelevant and oftencircumvented. Further reform was barely mentioned in the early1850s with the exception of proposals by a few committedradicals and, in particular, by Lord Russell. Russell attempted to

introduce reform bills in 1851 and 1854 but these were rejected.

In 1858 Disraeli suggested that reform could be an answer to helpreviving Conservative fortunes. He pointed out that the 1832 Acthad actually served their interests, leading to the conclusion that afurther act may actually increase their popularity. As a resultDerby and Disraeli introduced a reform Bill in 1858 but withadditional Russell motions, the Bill failed and they resigned.

The Palmerston-Russell ministry which followed in 1859 wasdependent on Radical members. A Bill was introduced in 1860which proposed a 6 rental voting qualification in boroughs and10 in counties. Most objected to it - including some radicals -who found it too mild.

No further attempts to reform Parliament were made until 1866.The Radical leader, Bright, attempted to agitate in the early

1860s. Opinion appeared muted and this continued until ideaswere revived following events in America (The US Civil War)andItaly(emerging as a nation state with parliamentarydemocracy). This renewed enthusiasm for greater democracy.In 1864, Gladstonepositioned himself as a reformer2and itbecame clear that should the opportunity arise, the Liberals would
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compel Gladstone to react. The National Reform Union (allied tothe Liberals) was formed in that year, establishing branchesthroughout the country. Ideas proposed included triennialparliament, ballots, redistribution of seats and ratepayer franchise.

It avoided universal male suffrage partly to appease the middleclasses. The National Reform League was also formed - this wasmore radical and did seek universal male suffrage. Bothmovements agitated for reform.In 1865 the Liberals were returned to office and on 18 OctoberPalmerston died and Russell became Prime Minister. Radicalelements were introduced to Cabinet because of the lack ofsupport for the ministry from right-wing Liberals. Radicals forced

Russell to introduce a Reform Bill3

. The Bill proposed suffragebased on a 7 rental qualification. Most Liberals rejected this. TheConservatives acted in order to force the government out and, inJuly, Derby and Disraeli took office and took over the Bill.New crises emerged with further demonstrations and agitation,including the Hyde Park Riots which cause widespreadconsternation.

The Derby/Disraeli administration saw the sponsorship of reformnot only as a placatory gesture to demonstrators, but also as anexpedient gesture to keep the administration going and crack theLiberals. In November 1866 they persuaded Cabinet to agree onthis. Due to various political manoeuvrings, including Disraeli'sdesire to undermine Gladstone and his own ideas on the need forreform, the Bill was introduced. It underwent many amendmentsand although some senior Conservatives objected to it as anattempt to destroy the political effectiveness of the landed

interest, it gained Royal Assent in August 1867. This was knownas the Second Reform Act.

The Second Reform Act (1867)
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Suffrage was extended to all borough householders with 12months' residency and to 10 lodgers. In the counties it wasextended to 5 property owners and 12 occupiers. Seats werere-allocated again, many to the new towns. In all, the Act added

1,120,000 voters to the previous 1,400,000. This meant that onein three men could vote, 47% in the boroughs.

In the aftermath there was a realisation that the party systemneeded reform to cater for working men. The National Union ofConservatives was founded in 1867. This did not mean, however,that individual associations would take account of working menand their opinions except where doing so helped to gain their

votes. This presaged the party system as it is known today. TheNational Liberal Foundation was formed in 1877 by Chamberlainto form caucuses and push forward radicalism.

It has been suggested by some historians that the Act also had aresounding - although indirect - impact on social policy. TheEducation Act of 1870 is noted as a direct consequence of theincreased enfranchisement following the Second Reform Act, asParliaments generally wished to ensure that all voters wereeducated.

Further Reforms

In 1872 there was a move to stop electoral corruption byintroducing The Ballot Act, which allowed secret ballot. This didnot mean that corruption was wiped out. Corrupt practices were

eventually stopped largely following the Corrupt Practices Act of1883, which was established as a result of public outcry from thefindings of a Royal Commission. The Act, among other points,imposed penalties for bribery and set maximums levels to bespent on electoral campaigns.


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It was still apparent, however, that the electoral system wasunfairly weighted against the counties. Many radicals were stillstriving for manhood suffrage but this was not widely popular.Gladstone saw reform in the mid-1880s as a way of propping up

his ailing government, particularly to swing the rural vote. AFranchise Bill was introduced in 1884. Although the bill gotthrough the Commons, the Lords blocked it as they felt that thenecessary distribution of seats that would come about as a resultof this (due to large amounts of electors suddenly voting inconstituencies), would need to be incorporated in a Bill at thesame time.

Chamberlain attempted to stir up further feeling for reform butlargely failed. A committee was established to look at principlesand, at the end of September, Gladstone met with party leadersfrom the Conservatives to finalise the deal. This was known asthe 'Arlington Street Compact'. The amended Bill was passed byParliament.

Third Reform Act (1884) and Redistribution

of Seats Act (1885)

The Third Reform Act gave votes to householders and lodgers incounties who had been resident for 12 months. This gave the voteto some 2,000,000 agricultural labourers, increasing theelectorate to 5,000,000. Two in three men were now entitled tovote. The Redistribution of Seats Act, which followed, aimed toredistribute voters more equally in the wake of the changes to

electoral franchise. This meant that the North of England, forexample, was more fairly represented and many two-memberconstituencies4were abolished.The aftermath of these two Acts more than ever increased theinfluence of the party as a political force and the party system ofgovernment became more prominent. Government was able to
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run from the Commons, proclaiming that they had the will of thepeople, thus diminishing the influence of the House of Lords. Thismeant that collisions such as that which happened in 1910 - 11over the 'People's Budget' - became more likely. However, not all

gained the vote. The female suffrage movement was in its infancyand one- third of all men still did not qualify to vote at all. Thisincluded soldiers in barracks, policemen and domestic servants.These men did not get the vote until 1918 and the vote was notextended to all until 1928.

Conclusion

From today's point of view there seems to be a process ofinevitability to the Parliamentary Reforms of the 19th Century,with the idea that good-thinking Victorians developed thesereforms as a natural conclusion to reasoned arguments of malesuffrage. The reality was somewhat different. The path to reformwas slow with many dead ends, and often had unintentional by-products. Many reforms were carried out for political expediencyor manoeuvring rather than for reform's sake. Indeed many -

including those doing the reforming - objected to such reformsand did not feel they were appropriate or necessary.

However, it is true to say that reform continued to be on theagenda - due to the efforts of many - until all were eventually ableto vote. By and large the systems adopted by 1885 are still usedtoday. The process of reform also often unintentionallyprecipitated other social reforms and allowed for the

establishment of a party and governmental structure morerecognisably similar to that of today.

Documents

British Parliamentary Reform in the 19th Century