What was reform act of 1832

Although Members of Parliament were technically elected prior to , limitations on who could vote only propertied men and haphazardly drawn electoral district lines meant that a small number of aristocratic elites either held or controlled the majority of seats in both parliamentary houses. Bribery was rampant, and the lack of a secret ballot allowed campaigners to put pressure on voters. Some boroughs, such as those in the rapidly growing industrial towns of Birmingham and Manchester, had no MPs to represent them at all.

At the same time, there were notorious 'rotten' boroughs, such as Old Sarum at Salisbury, which had two MPs but only seven voters. There were also 'pocket' boroughs — those owned by major landowners who chose their own MP.

Moreover, with no secret ballot, voters were easily bribed or intimidated. In its final form the Reform Act of increased the electorate from around , to ,, which was about 18 per cent of the total adult-male population in England and Wales. 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 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. On 15 August the Second Reform Act received the royal assent, bringing to an end a paradoxical series of events. Derby 's minority government had sponsored legislation which expanded the franchise by approximately a million voters.

The Act far surpassed the , proposed in the Russell-Gladstone Bill, which the Conservatives had helped to condemn some twelve months earlier. To the astonishment of his peers Disraeli incorporated a series of far-reaching amendments — maintaining an agenda in advance of Gladstone , and the Radicals. Rotten boroughs were removed and the new towns given the right to elect MPs, although constituencies were still of uneven size. This reform did not go far enough to silence all protest. Why did the government change the political system in ?

Worksheet Activity: Was reform needed? Reform poster from South Shields,