"A Leap in the Dark"? Was Lord Derby's Judgement of the second reform act 1867 fair given the limitations of the Act?
30th September 2004 A2 History – Mr Finny “A Leap in the Dark”? Was Lord Derby’s Judgement of the second reform act 1867 fair given the limitations of the Act? In 1867 a Conservative government lead by Lord Derby passed, what was a fairly radical Reform Bill, enabling a further 1.2 million adult males to be eligible for the vote. There was either a change in the Conservative mindset brought on by either inside or outside pressure, or there were benefits for the Conservatives to pass such a bill themselves. Since the first reform act the Tory Party had not won a single election and since Lord Palmerston's death, reform was back on the agenda, as he was anti-reform. Unhappiness due to the first reform caused agitation from the working classes and put pressure on MPs to reform and the general consensus was that greater democracy was called for. Was Lord Derby really influenced by the American and Italian spirit of democracy? Or did Lord Derby think that he could gain from it, like the Liberals had in 1932? Disraeli's was the real motivation behind The Second Reform Act, Lord Derby had little to do with the bill's creation or passage but let Disraeli go through with it nonetheless. Disraeli as a young politician had aspirations of reform and he still carried them, his ambition propelled him to the position he was in now in a minority government and ambition can be argued to be one of the reasons that The Second Reform Act was proposed. More