To what extent did The Great Reform Act of 1832 transform the British political system?

Once reform was begun 'you could not find any point to stop short of the absolute sovereignty of the people' - Disraeli
The reform act of 1832 was almost a direct consequence of the political, social and economic revolution taking place in France in the 1830's which saw the ideas of liberty and the right of representation take form in the United Kingdom which in turn caused demonstrations and the Swing Riots to take place all over the country. This wasn't sought after just by the poor element of the population there was a emerging middle class that demanded to be heard and for the old system to be thrown out. There is a belief that the Great Reform Act of 1832 was of little significance and no more than a tinkering of the system to appease the public and stave off any sort of revolution that would wipe out the old order. So Lord John Russell a well respected Whig decided to take action and presented a Bill to Parliament on in March 1831 that would if passed double the number of people who would be eligible to vote in Great Britain. The Bill was rejected on the first attempt and the second and was only passed on the third try after a riot in Bristol turned ultra violent and started a fire which destroyed over a hundred buildings and killing twelve people and injuring over a hundred. The third Reform Bill was hesitantly passed through but was looked at by some MPs as a road to ruin because they thought it made the government look weak and susceptible to blackmail and therefore it didn't matter how many Bills were passed the mob would always want more. But the small changes that happened were enough to keep the country from deteriorating into a full scale revolution. The changes although were quite small the importance of the changes can't be overlooked. One of the most important aspects of the Act was it addressed the problem of the Rotten Boroughs(historylearningsite.co.uk,2012). Rotten Boroughs were constituencies or boroughs that by law had the right to elect two members to the House of Commons and these places were usually of some importance such as a commercial area or a densely populated town, but over a period of years for whatever reason the area would lose huge amounts of the populace and in theory lose the right to be represented in the House of Commons but this didn't happen because there was no law to change which places had the vote if the population shifted and thus the lower amount of people the easier it was for a rich landowner to bribe or threaten the voters. In one instance the town of Dunwich had fallen into the sea due to coastal erosion and was left with three houses and fifteen people but still had a MP which shows the ludicrous state of the political establishment in the 1800's. This led to the 'Disenfranchisement Clauses' which aimed to remove the two representatives or just one MP if that borough had been identified as being over represented and then to be distributed to more deserving places like the emerging industrial areas such as Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham which had hundreds of thousands of people but little or no 1

representation. The result was that 56 rotten boroughs lost both their MPs which caused great tension within the Tory party as it was seen as a god given right for those families that 'owned' those seats to maintain that tradition but the Reform Act still went ahead. This wasn't the only the cull of MPs of the Reform Act of 1832 had, a further 30 boroughs lost one MP each because the boroughs had less than 4,000 inhabitants(victorianweb.org,2008). This had then given the House of Commons a particularly difficult problem as what to do with 143 seats in Parliament that had to be filled so naturally the people who were in charge of writing the Reform Act didn't want to just hand over the seats and the votes to just anybody they still wanted to keep it in the family and that family was money. So the majority of the seats went to the areas that had become opulent unlike the Rotten Boroughs that had declined since the middle ages and these were the industrial heartland of Britain. The new voting powers were going to be awarded to 'new money' which is a term which refers to someone which comes from a poorer background but has a come into wealth through business and these new voters were people who owned property such as houses and factories where huge amounts of the British Empire goods were being made also people such as lawyers, shopkeepers and doctors so basically anyone who owed property and earned at least 10 per year(leith.edin.sch.uk,2012). What this achieved was something quite monumental for the period as it gave more people the right to vote, almost 50% increase in the number of males that could cast a vote, which on the face off it looked like the Reform Act had given the general population a voice but not all was as it appeared as the property qualifications for voters still left millions of males without the vote, only 1 in 5 men were eligible(spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk,2010). Although the distribution of parliamentary seats was improved the overall number of seats were still focused in the southern part of England, but it still gave a larger vote to the population and there were so clear benefits to this. After the 1832 Reform Act the following elections were far more contested than they were prior to the Act because it gave the more chance for people to cast a vote and to have their voice heard. But the Reform Act did abolish the 'Open Borough' which was a an excellent way in which the working man could actually vote without being a wealthy landowner, the idea was that anybody could cast a vote if they were passing through the area or town which was a fantastic opportunity, so in this instance it was a poor decision by the reformists. As mentioned above The Great Reform Act of 1832 changed how people could vote but it also made the franchise more uniform and stable which allowed people who were far more qualified than a wealthy land owner or a son who had inherited his title to become an MP which was nearly impossible before the reform. The Great Reform Act also brought around a more of a professional manner to the way the voting process was carried out and this was made possible by the organisation in constituencies around the country and the politicians realised that it was incredibly important that their supporters were registered as voters by professionals rather than part time voluntary agents that weren't partially proficient at securing all the potential voters, with this the widening electorate forced the hands of the parties and therefore they had to broaden their basis of support, such as the Peel Tamworth manifesto(British History 1815-

1914,2007,p.160) which laid down the founding principles of the modern British
Conservative Party which in turn gave them support from the moderate classes such as manufacturers and businessmen. 2

Another transformation of the British political system after the Great Reform Act of 1832 was the development of the two party system, 'Within ten years of the Reform Act', wrote Gash, 'politics was dominated by two major parties to an extent previously unknown in British history' and because of this the formation of the Liberal and Conservative parties were to be formed over the next ten years which would transform the way people could vote, the newspapers were even reporting on the two parties gains or losses in the elections which was also a first in Britain, but it was no means unique in Europe as Germany had political parties many years before (Extension of the Franchise 1832-1931,2001,p.230). Following on from the formation of the two party system there was a formation of political clubs that developed a more central coordination of policy and strategy with the establishment of the Reform Club by the Whigs and the Carlton Club by the Tories, there was of course the traditional gentleman's club that had the same function but these new clubs became the unofficial headquarters of these political forces. With the founding of these clubs they became a must for anybody wishing to advance within the party and politics as a whole. Many subjects would be discussed within these clubs but the main point of discussion was party tactics and polices which would reflect the increasing professionalism that was accruing at the time after the Reform Act of 1832(Extension of

the Franchise 1832-1931,2001,p.78).

As it had been throughout the history of Britain the aristocrats have had a huge influence in politics even after the English civil war, this is mainly because of the disproportionate amount of MPs that are landowners and therefore they would have a family connection somewhere down the line and thus the royals would wield a large amount of influence in parliament through those connections but after the 1832 Reform Act was passed this had waned quite allot as the redistribution of MPs took away the traditional landowners of Britain and replaced them with the middle class but they still held influence in such places as Winsor and Brighton, with Winsor being held by the Ramsbottoms for over 200 years(ehr.oxfordjournals.org,2012). Although the Reform Act of 1832 changed a great deal when it was passed it wasn't a perfect transformation of the British political system and left many of the same problems that existed before and one of these problems was the 'open declaration' voting system that had been around for hundreds of years. For instance when an election was coming to an end and it was required of the people to cast their vote they would stand in line as people do today but when they got to the front the judicator would ask for them to nominate in front of everybody else unlike today where it is cast behind closed doors and you have complete confidentiality, and this allowed for the politicians to bribe the voters for their vote and this was usually done with a small amount of money or something as simple as a glass of beer or brandy and even in some cases the voters were bribed with farm animals such as pigs and chickens which at the time must of cost a small fortune. But there was a darker sided as well to the 'open declaration' voting system and it focused on the acts of violence and intimidation. The prospective MPs would hire groups of men that would roam the crowds and assault people at random and then warn the people who could vote that the same would happen to them if they didn't do as they were instructed and this carried on long after the Great Reform Act was passed. But this wasn't considered a bad practice to 3

many voters as they could make a substantial profit from being bribed, as Evans points out in his book 'The Great Reform Act of 1832' that a report from the Marquis of Hartington in 1870 found that after the second Reform Act people who had the right to vote refused to do so because they weren't being paid, and with the elections being more contested it allowed for an increase in voter bribery than it was before the 1832 Reform Act(The Great Reform

Act of 1832,1994,p.41).
Although a majority of the Rotten Boroughs had been eliminated they still had a number of 'Pocket Boroughs' that existed beyond the Reform Act. A pocket borough was a parliamentary constituencies that were owned by one man who was known as the patron and so this allowed him to control the voting rights and therefore he alone could nominate the two MPs who would represent the borough in parliament as Evans suggests that up to 60 and 70 MPs owed their seats to patronage. But this did have a benefit as it allowed men to enter parliament at a young age which would allow them to gain allot of experience over the course of their political career(The Great Reform Act of 1832,1994,p.41). In conclusion the Great Reform Act was a momentous moment in British history that laid the foundations for the complete movement towards full democracy for the country. This then would allow Reform Acts to be passed over the course of the next hundred years. The many small changes that were made contributed together to make Britain greater both within the long-term and the short-term and allow the North to finally have substantial representation by eliminating the Rotten Boroughs and doubling the electorate. However the Reform Act didn't change who had the majority of the power in the country which was still held by the wealthy landowners, aristocrats and the newly formed industrialists which had little to no interest in the common man, which is why so little changed in the First Reform Act and was no more of a act of appeasement that warded off a full scale revolution such as the one in France and so alas the common man still had no voice.

Reference List

1832 Reform Act. 2012. 1832 Reform Act. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PR1832.htm. [Accessed 9 November 2012]. Bob Whitfield, 2001. Extension of the Franchise 1832-1931 As (Heinemann Advanced History). Edition. Heinemann Secondary Education. Eric J. Evans, 1994. The Great Reform Act of 1832 (Lancaster Pamphlets). 2 Edition. Routledge. Norman McCord, 2007. British History 1815-1914 (Short Oxford History of the Modern World). Second Edition Edition. Oxford University Press, USA. The Reform Of Parliment.2012 [ONLINE]Available at: http://www.leith.edin.sch.uk/departments/history/British%20Topic.pdf. [Accessed 12 November 2012]. RottenBoroughs.2012.RottenBoroughs.[ONLINE]Availableat: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/rotten_boroughs.htm. [Accessed 8 November 2012]. Terms of the 1832 Reform Act. 2012. Terms of the 1832 Reform Act. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.victorianweb.org/history/reform2.html. [Accessed 8 November 2012] The Influence of the Crown at Windsor and Brighton in the Elections of 1832, 1835, and 1837 . 2012. The Influence of the Crown at Windsor and Brighton in the Elections of 1832, 1835, and 1837 . [ONLINE] Available at: http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/content/LIV/CCXVI/653.extract. [Accessed 10 November 2012].