Why was the first Great Reform Act passed in 1832 and not before?

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Alexandra Corbet-Milward

Why was the first Great Reform Act passed in 1832 and not before?

        The gradual disintegration of the anti-reform Pittite majority Tory party can be seen as one of the main factors leading to the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832.  In order to understand why reform hadn’t been passed before, the key factor is the domination of anti-reform politicians attributed to this, and the fact that the old system of representation was quite unsuited to the changing times. Reform had always been a likely and recurrent focus for debate, yet the French Revolution increased tension within Parliament, and a conservative backlash resulted. Therefore Reform was less likely. The possibility of reform increased with the resignation of Liverpool in 1827, the ensuing Tory break-up and formation of a Whig government by Grey in 1830.

        During Pitt’s ministry, he had managed to form an anti-reform majority both inside and outside Westminster. It was because of this that those who had served under him remained hostile to reform well into the 1820’s, aiding the reason as to why Parliamentary Reform wasn’t passed before 1832. Some historians have even maintained that there was nothing to suggest that Parliament needed reform. One Historian said, ‘There is no objective sense in which these things can be said to have made the electoral system inappropriate.’ The main threat still remained as to what might happen if Parliament remained dogmatic and inflexible, and therefore, M.P’s were still aware of reform being a live issue.

In June 1812, Lord Liverpool’s administration was formed, and he consciously refashioned the Pittite coalition, one that was opposed to reform. The call for reform was threatening, so Ministers were inclined to act, as Pitt had done, in a repressive manner. Working class radicals were generally seen as respectable reformers, whose calls for necessary reform had provoked an outrageous response from a set of nervous reactionaries.

During the 1820’s, Parliamentary opinion revealed little more than ‘negligible support’ for reform of Parliament. At the time Liverpool came to make some changes in his cabinet, the Whigs were divided on reform, while the Tories remained opposed to it. Reform bills introduced in 1823, 1824 and 1826 showed little support. During the 1826 General Election, the issue of reform was hardly raised. With the Tories now in office, even had the Whigs been elected they would not have pushed Parliamentary reform as they were divided on the issue. Within a year of Liverpool’s stroke, Tory politics appeared to be in total disorder, and the Tory break-up proved to be a decisive factor in the lead up to the passing of the first Reform Act in 1832. Canning replaced Liverpool as Prime Minister, so increasing instability in government. He replaced some Tories and turned to more conservative Whigs. Some even refused to serve under him. When Liverpool was governing, he had known what passions Catholic Emancipation still aroused in the country and he had tried to keep it on the backburner. The fact that Canning supported Emancipation was an increasingly divisive factor in the Tory party, as there were those in the cabinet who wanted political relief for Protestants and those who backed Catholic Emancipation. He was therefore distrusted amongst the Protestants from Liverpool’s cabinet.

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Canning was replaced by Goderich, who proved to be an exceedingly weak leader. This did little to aid the divisions and fragility of the Tory party, and because of this, it appeared possible for a Whig government to be elected, thereby allowing Parliamentary reform to occur.

On the collapse of Goderich’s ministry, the King looked to the Protestant Tory Wellington to form a strong government. On doing so, Wellington dismissed the Canningites in government, yet many, including Grey, saw the value of united opposition against the Ultra Tory government. As a result, the dismissed Canningites accepted the necessity of reform ...

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