The Conservatives therefore formed a ministry on , , of which was and Disraeli . They were faced with the challenge of reviving Conservatism: Palmerston, the powerful Whig leader, was dead and the Liberal Party split and defeated. Thanks to Disraeli's manoeuvring, the Conservatives had this one chance to prove that the were a viable party of government. However, there was still a Liberal majority in the Commons. A disaffected branch of the Liberal party called the led by were persuaded to ally with the . The Adullamites were anti-reform, as were the Conservatives but the Adullamites were not easy to work with and wanted to have too many of their number in the Cabinet. In response ended the alliance and started his own bill for parliamentary reform. The Conservative resigned in disgust.
The Conservatives therefore formed a ministry on , , of which was and Disraeli . They were faced with the challenge of reviving Conservatism: Palmerston, the powerful Whig leader, was dead and the Liberal Party split and defeated. Thanks to Disraeli's manoeuvring, the Conservatives had this one chance to prove that they were a viable party of government. However, there was still a Liberal majority in the Commons.A disaffected branch of the Liberal party called the led by were persuaded to ally with the . The Adullamites were anti-reform, as were the Conservatives but the Adullamites were not easy to work with and wanted to have too many of their number in the Cabinet. In response ended the alliance and started his own bill for parliamentary reform. The Conservative resigned in disgust.
Disraeli reasoned that if the working class were enfranchised, they would vote Tory out of sheer gratitude. (This, however, turned out not to be the case: the was disastrous for the Tories.) Moreover, to succeed at this hurdle of reform at which Gladstone had just fallen would be a tremendous political victory, ensuring that Disraeli would succeed Derby as leader of the Conservative Party. There was yet another significant motive: to destroy the popular campaign for reform, led by the , and the radical . Their actions had culminated in a demonstration in on which was led by Robert Appleagarth, the general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners(ASCJ) and other union members of the Reform League. This demonstration had turned to violence because the new conservative Home Secretary and sir Richard Mayne, the commissioner of Police were afraid of rioting in the Park.They banned the meeting.
The climate of the late , too, was conducive to reform. The increasing "respectability" of large portions of the working class had assuaged middle-class fears, and political views had moved closer to democracy. More people accepted that, eventually, most men should be enfranchised, not as a right but as a well-earned privilege. The question was, therefore, whether the time was right to enfranchise this or that group.
By making the Reform Bill that they introduced more moderate than the Liberals', the Tories had ensured that Adullamites and reactionaries would accept it. The proposals were as follows: a borough franchise for all who paid rates in person (that is, not compounders); and extra votes for graduates, professionals and those with over £50 savings. These last "fancy franchises" were seen by Conservatives as a weapon against a mass electorate. However, Gladstone attacked the Bill and, in a series of sparkling parliamentary debates with Disraeli, made the Bill much more radical. Ironically, having been given his chance by the belief that Gladstone's Bill had gone too far in 1866, Disraeli had now gone further. He lost his alliance with the Adullamites, but managed to get the Bill passed by allying with radicals.
The act enfranchised 1,500,000 people by giving the vote to all adult male urban householders and male lodgers paying £10 a year for unfurnished rooms. The Conservatives had virtually doubled the British electorate. Several towns that were previously unrepresented were given MPs including . Towns with a population of less than 10,000 lost an MP, this freed up 45 seats for redistribution amongst new towns, growing industrial towns, northern counties and 1 to the . The bill ultimately aided the rise of the radical wing of the Liberal party and helped Disraeli to victory. The Act was tidied up with many further Acts to alter the electoral boundaries
