The 1832 Reform Act

The radicals were just a small group. The main parties were the Tories and the Whigs. The Tories were a party of lords and gentry, and strongly against the reform of Parliament. The Whigs were a mixture of landlords and businessmen. They thought that some reform would be wise. But until 1830 the Tories were in power, so Parliament stayed unchanged.

At last, in 1830, the Whigs formed a government. In 1831, they brought in a bill to abolish some rotten boroughs and give more men the vote. The Tories voted against it. But the people wanted reform - there were riots in London and Bristol in favour of the bill. In the end, it was passed and became the 1832 Reform Act (i.e. a new law).

The Reform Act abolished 56 rotten boroughs and gave towns such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds the right to have their own M.P.s. It gave middle-class men in towns and the richer tenant-farmers the right to vote. But there were no votes for the working class.

The Reform Act gave the vote to about half a million men. Now, one man in every five could vote. But there was no secret ballot. So men could still be forced or bribed to vote as their landlords wished. The landowners still had more power than anyone else.

Walter Robson: Britain 1750 – 1900; Oxford University Press, 1993/2002, page 40 f.