People in England weren’t the only people pressing for reform. The Irish were too. The Church of England was very anti-Catholicism, the Church and the Monarchy were against Catholic Emancipation, but the Whigs weren’t. However, it was seen that the wider population of England didn’t like the idea. In the 1807 election, the Whigs were heckled with cries of ‘no popery’. However, in Ireland, the majority being Catholic, Catholic Emancipation was very much an issue. In 1823 Daniel O’Connell and Richard Shiel formed the Catholic Association of Ireland. There main aim was to achieve emancipation. It had membership by charging the Catholic rent; it grew quickly in popularity and also in resources. It was closed down in 1825, but then an alternative, the Order of Liberation continued to raise money for the cause. It raised the profile of the issue of emancipation, and in the 1828 general election O’Connell won one of the two Clare seats despite being barred from actually taking his seat. Catholic emancipation was granted in 1829, after O’Connell’s campaign caused unrest in Ireland, and Wellington feared that not granting emancipation would lead to rebellion in Ireland. This showed people, in Ireland and England that it is definitely possible to get what you want with pressure groups and no violence.
There were big campaigns for reform in the late 1820’s and early 1830’s, by the middle classes, and about 100 political unions’ rallied support in favour or reform. One of the most successful political unions was the Birmingham Political Union set up by Thomas Attwood in 1829. They were made up or the middle class, and were supported also by the working class. This is because the BPU sad that they would protect the working class and express their views and opinions aswell as the middle classes. Their meetings attracted up to 100,000 people and inspired others around the country to set up similar organisations. They believed the vote should be given to the middle classes who would then represent the views of the working class, and they campaigned for the reform of the electoral system. In 1830, in London, Francis Place set up the National Political Union. Demonstrations in London were often large, in December 1830 over 10,000 workers met in the centre of the capital to call for an extension to the franchise. The middle classes hoped to gain reform, in a peaceful manner using pressure groups, like O’Connell and the Catholic Association.
Economic context was important in the campaign for reform during 1829-1832. The harvest in 1829 was very, very poor and the bread prices rose. No-one was happy about this, and some even blamed the government. In 1830 Wellington’s government reduced the taxes on a range of goods including beer. The economic conditions in the country were getting worse, and this led to a revival in the campaign for reform of the Parliament. For example, the National Union of Working Class was founded in April 1831. This shows that the Working class wanted reform aswell as the middle classes, the Catholics and the Radicals. The Swing riots which swept the Southern and Eastern counties in 1830-1831 prove this. These riots were the result of worsening rural unemployment, the introduction of mechanisation in agriculture, a reduction in the level of poor relief in some counties, and the economic distress caused by the poor harvests. They smashed machinery, set fire to hay bails and caused general mayhem.
The pressure for reform from the population was great, and when the Tories were in power, there was not much chance of reform because they were very much against it. But, the Whigs under Lord Grey were not against reform. The Whig government was very committed to parliamentary reform, and had recognised that the old unreformed electoral system was defective. Lord Grey argued that the electoral system should reflect the economic contribution now made by the middle and upper classes. He wanted to strengthen the government by allying it with the middle classes. The proposals of the Whigs were primarily aimed at increasing representation of the middle classes in the new industrial cities. Grey was very aware of the threat of revolution, so he believed reform would stop any possibility of this.
As the Whigs were not against reform, and there was so much pressure for it, the Whigs introduced the Reform Bill in 1831, written by John Russell, and it was surprisingly radical. It proposed the following:
- A lowering of the property qualification in order to extend the vote to about 300,000 new voters or about 18% of the adult male population.
- All those who owned a house which was rated at £10 a year to receive the vote.
- A redistribution of seats from many boroughs to the growing towns and cities; 168 rotten boroughs would lose their MPs, to be replaced by 43 new borough seats.
This first bill was very much appealing for more representation; however, there was still a £10 qualification for voting rights in the boroughs, so the working class still couldn’t vote. The bill managed to pass its second reading in the Commons by one vote, but was defeated in the committee stage. The Commons was generally shocked at the proposals. Some Tories accepted that some reform was needed, but rejected the extent proposed by the Whigs. Other Tories rejected reform entirely. Grey called a general election in April 1831, and increased the Whigs support with a majority of 130. Because of this, he proceeded with his reform plans, and a second bill was drawn up.
In the summer of 1831 a slightly amended bill was introduced and by September it had passed through the Commons and committee stages easily, but then reached the House of Lords. The Lords were dominated by Tory Peers who were opposed to the idea of changing the electoral system because they thought the Bill was reforming the lower house and then things would move on to changing the upper house. Grey realised that if the Bill was to be passed, then it had to pass through the Lords, and this wasn’t going to happen as their Lordships possessed an absolute veto on government bill. So even if the majority in the Commons was huge, the second bill was still going to be rejected. In October the bill was defeated by 41 votes in the House of Lords. The population was very annoyed at this. An angry mob in Nottingham attacked and burned down Nottingham castle which belonged to the ‘borough monger’, the Duke of Newcastle.
The third bill was presented to Parliament in 1832. Grey realised that the bill wouldn’t be passed unless the Whigs had majority, which they didn’t. Because of this, Grey asked the King to appoint enough Whig peers in the upper house to overcome the anti-reformers and get the bill passed. But King William IV refused and in the events that followed, Grey resigned. The King had no alternative but to appoint the Duke of Wellington to form a Tory ministry. This created uproar throughout the country, because Wellington was anti-reform. This national crisis sparked the BPU and Thomas Attwood to organise huge demonstrations, and even though Thomas Attwood always campaigned without violence, he was unable to stop some. The BPU even drew up plans to arm its members in order to maintain public order. Francis Place encouraged people to stop paying taxes, and to take their money out of banks to cause a financial collapse. The Government was afraid of revolution at this point. Wellington’s attempts to form a government were useless and the king agreed to appoint new Whig Peers to solve the major constitutional crisis. The King asked Grey to come back four days later. Under the most severe public pressure, the anti-reformers collapsed, and the threat of new peers convinced the Lords they had to give way. The Bill was passed on its third reading on 7 June 1832. The Bill can be summarised as:
- 56 boroughs totally lost the vote
- 31 small boroughs lost one of their two MPs
- 22 new two-member constituencies were created
- 20 new one member constituencies were created
- Representation of counties was increased
- Property qualification of £10 in boroughs
- Electorate increased in Scotland, and England, not as much in Ireland
- All voters to enlist to qualify for vote
- No secret ballot
The change of the enfranchisement of the ‘respectable classes’ (those who qualified for the £10 householder franchise) had the desired effect of splitting the alliance between the middle classes and the working classes. This is because the middle classes could now vote and were represented, but the working class still weren’t. Most middle class greeted the reform with joy and hope, but there was still no middle class MPs in parliament because most couldn’t afford it. The Whigs and the Tories gained because they still maintained their dominance over the system. The Whigs gained substantially, and now had 500 of the 658 seats in the new House of Commons. The Working Classes didn’t gain very much at all, they weren’t within the £10 qualification to vote, so couldn’t, and therefore had no representation. Conditions of the towns were still very bad, and new following reforms were not going to help the poor e.g. the Poor Law Amendment Act. The Act severely restricted the power the Crown had in influencing events at Westminster. Now, a ministry could now survive without the support of the Crowns and Lords but not without the support of the Commons.
Perhaps the most important consequence of the 1832 Reform Act was that it prepared the way for further political, social and economic change. It wetted the appetite for new reforms such as the Municipal Corporations Act, the Marriage Act and the Factory Act. The Reform Act in 1832 came about because of huge amounts of pressure from the working class (swing riots, and National Union of Working Class), the middle classes (BPU), and the Radicals (Henry Hunt). They all wanted to stop corruption, and gain representation and the Whigs realised reform was necessary. However, although they passed the act in the end after objections from Tories, the act had a negative effect on the working class, and the middle classes only benefited slightly. It seemed like the Whigs were the ones who benefited most from the Act. However, it was a huge landmark, and the act did definitely set the scene for future reforms and gave the Whigs a taste for it. It was also the beginnings of a modern party organisation.