Why was the Reform Act passed in 1832?

There were several major factors involved in the build up to the reform act which all led to the government having to enforce the reform act to keep the people happy. The voting system was extremely out of date, having not been altered since the 18th century and the government had not taken into consideration the demographic changes with had taken place since then. There were many rotten boroughs (Areas which had low vote to high representation ratio) and yet many fast growing cities like Leeds and Manchester had little or no representation at all which meant that no proportional voting was in place. There were no secret ballots and there was a lot of corruption, both in elections and in parliament. People were bribed to vote for a certain candidate for money instead of their qualities and talents. The swing riots was an explosion in Britain at the time as it was such a huge movement of industrial workers, unhappy at low wages, high unemployment and new labour saving devices led the workers to attack machinery and burn barns which was affecting the amount of work in the country. Radicals such as Willam Cobbett argued that only parliament would put an end to social and economic problems of the time.

The French Revolution in 1789 inspired many people and ideas, it influenced Englishmen to examine their own constitution and provided confidence in the possibility of change. The writings of Tom Paine, who himself was a working class man, included such radical ideas as the Declaration Of The Rights Of Man. The way he tackled the oppression and inequality in this period, and fought against it with well educated pieces of writing was highly inspirational to the French Revolution, and consequently in Britain. There were many problems with Britain's political system at this time to rebel against. The ruling class were willing to do anything to prevent the same thing happening in britain and when the second french revolution occurred in july 1830, people revived their interest in parliamentary reform.

In 1828, banker Thomas Attwood founded Birmingham Political Union, it was a campagne for reform by organising public meetings and petitions. Figures went up from 15000 to 25000 and so this created much pressure on parliament for reform. They used the press, newspapers such as the Leeds Mercury, Manchester Guadian, Newcastle Chronicle and Shefiled Independent, which help spread their ideas and keep enthusiam for reform alive.

Another factor that helped the reform being passed in 1832, was the change of monach. In 1830 King George IV, a hard line opponent of reform, ...

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Another factor that helped the reform being passed in 1832, was the change of monach. In 1830 King George IV, a hard line opponent of reform, died and was succeededby William IV who was more pro reform. Therefore unlike King George IV, William was more neutral and didn’t get in the way of preventing a reform.

Between 1770 and 1830, the were the dominant force in the . The Tories were strongly opposed to increasing the number of people who could vote. However, in November 1830, , a , became Prime Minister. Grey explained to that he wanted to introduce proposals that would get rid of some of the . These boroughs were parliamentary constituencies that had over the years, declined in size, but still had the right to elect members of the House of Commons. Many had been prosperous market towns in the Middle Ages, but by now had declined to no more than country villages. Grey also planned to give Britain's fast growing industrial towns such as , , and , representation in the House of Commons.

In April 1831 Grey asked to dissolve Parliament so that the Whigs could secure a larger majority in the . Grey explained this would help his government to carry their proposals for parliamentary reform. William agreed to Grey's request and after making his speech in the , walked back through cheering crowds to Buckingham Palace. After Lord Grey's election victory, he tried again to introduce parliamentary reform. On 22nd September 1831, the passed the Reform Bill. However, the Tories still dominated the , and after a long debate the bill was defeated. Earl Grey’s battle to deliver Parliamentary Reform was not yet over. The wishes of the British people surfaced again as news of the defeat spread across the land. Several riots broke out; these became known as the Reform Riots, the most serious taking place in Bristol, putting pressure on the government.

Determined to get the Reform Bill passed, Earl Grey, with the support of Henry Brougham met William IV and asked him to create a large number of Whig peers in order to get the Reform Bill passed in the House of Lords. However, as time had passed a King had pondered about the wisdom of parliamentary reform: William IV rocked the pair by refusing. Faced with no alternative, Earl Grey and his government resigned, William IV asked the Duke of Wellington, leader of the Tories to form a new government. The Duke tried to do this but some Tories were unwilling to join a cabinet that was in opposition to the views of the huge majority of people in Britain. With the Duke of Wellington failing to recruit significant figures into his cabinet, somewhat humiliated William IV was forced to ask Earl Grey to return his government to office. William IV had attempted to frustrate the will of the electorate and paid heavily with the loss of popularity that he had so much enjoyed during the first part of his reign. Earl Grey repeated his request to William IV. This time William IV had no choice but to agree and create a large number of Whig peers than risk losing Earl Grey.

With the scene of huge and stormy demonstrations, and his government tried again to introduce a Reform Act. Finally, on 13th April 1832, the was passed by a small majority in the .

Overall, the old political system was out dated and with all the problems occurring, something needed to be done. The most important event which was the turning event, was the change in government attitude, the introduction of the Whigs who were pro reform and with a leader Earl Grey who was determined to continue to not only get pro reform candidates elected but to get a reform passed even if he failed the first time and prevented by those who were averse to reform. The Whigs also had close links with industrialists and supported moderate political and social reform, unlike most Tories who strongly supported the interests of the aristocracy and were opposed to reform of any kind. The pressure of riots, foreign revolutions, and pressure groups also caused the change in attitude that soon forced and persuaded parliament to change their minds and allow the reform bill to be passed in 1832.

Why was the Reform Act passed in 1832?

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