The Electoral System and
Parliamentary Reform
Outline
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Introduction
The franchise before 1832
Who voted and how?
Pressure for reform
1832 Reform Act
Did anything change with reform?
Introduction
Is Hogarth’s Election Entertainment a good summary of the electorate
and the way elections were conducted in the eighteenth century?
The ‘rage of party’
Some historians argue electoral participation and activity was
high in this period:
• The size of the electorate: Plumb estimates electorate of
200,000 in William’s reign and about 250,000 in 1715.
Holmes looks at total electorate rather than numbers
voting giving figure of 340,000 voters by 1722: around 1 in
4 adult males who could vote.
• The triennial act of 1694: there were 10 general elections in
the following twenty years. The number of contests was
never lower than 86 and only 30 constituencies failed to
have a poll in the years between 1691 and 1715. After 1715
only an election every 7 years. Number of contests
averaged below 40.
Hanoverian period
Holmes: after 1715, in the counties there was a
‘prolonged electoral coma’ and the boroughs were ‘all
but wholly anaesthetised’.
• very few voters were free to vote as they wished,
Namier arguing that ‘not one voter in 20 could freely
exercise his statutory right’
• electorate was thoroughly venal and regarded the vote
as a piece of personal property
• elections were exclusive concerning only political and
social elites
• political issues were unimportant in election contests
and ideology had little part to play.
Hanoverian period
More positive interpretations by Frank O’Gorman in Voters, Patrons
and Parties and J A Phillips in Electoral Behaviour in Unreformed
England and The Great Reform Bill in the Boroughs.
• electoral system was controlled by local elites, but with difficulty
• electoral system was never closed, despite its antiquated and
unrepresentative features.
• electoral politics became an increasingly active and participatory
experience because of traditions of popular independence, rise of
the press and the growth of an articulate and educated public
opinion
• electoral politics were local with variety of local traditions and
cultures involved
• But do O’Gorman and Phillips focus on large, open and not very
typical constituencies?
County franchise
• The franchise was a mixture of systems dating back to the medieval
period and based on the early modern areas of wealth and
population.
• English counties based their representation on an act of 1430 which
enabled 40 shilling freeholders to possess the vote - a uniform
franchise.
• Counties tended to be large open constituencies, rarely under the
control of a single aristocrat
• No residence qualification so ‘outvoters’ could perform a crucial
role.
• Largest county was Yorkshire with around 10,000 voters. Kent,
Norfolk and Northants had about 6000. The smallest counties were
Carnarvonshire and Rutland with around 500 voters.
• Some towns had county status, including Lincoln and York
Borough franchise
Not uniform:
• Inhabitant boroughs (55). All residents could vote
• Burgage boroughs (41). Burgages were ancient pieces of
real estate and property from which the right to vote was
derived.
• Corporation boroughs (19). Right to vote was restricted to
members of the corporation.
• Freemen boroughs (100) where only freemen could vote.
• University boroughs of Oxford and Cambridge. Franchise
restricted to Doctors and Masters of Arts of the
Universities. Cambridge had a Whig tradition and Oxford a
Tory one.
Wales, Scotland, Ireland
• Wales: 12 one member counties and 12 one member boroughs,
totalling 24 seats in all. County franchise was 40 shilling freehold.
Boroughs divided into 1 corporation borough; 9 freemen boroughs
and 2 inhabitant boroughs
• Scotland joined the English system after the Act of Union in 1707.
There were 30 one member counties and 15 districts of burghs
returning 1 MP each, thus totalling 45 seats in all. Scottish boroughs
were very venal employing a method of indirect election. In
counties, Scottish electoral qualifications were based upon the ‘old
extent’ and electorates were small ranging from around 21 to 240
voters.
• After 1801 the Irish constituencies consisted of 32 two member
counties, 2 two member boroughs (Cork and Dublin), 31 one
member boroughs and the university seat of Trinity College Dublin
returning a total of 100 MPs.
Who voted?
• It is very difficult to ascertain who a typical voter was in the
eighteenth century?
• The borough electorates varied dramatically from all resident
inhabitants to just the members of the corporation.
• In counties local interpretations of the 40 shilling freeholder varied.
In Cheshire there were a substantial number of ‘leases for lives’
voters but in Yorkshire assessments of who qualified for a vote
differed from parish to parish.
• Women were not excluded from the franchise by law – this was an
innovation of 1832.
• Elaine Chalus has uncovered evidence of women appointing male
proxies to vote on their behalf. As the right to vote was often based
on property, single women or widows owning that property could
qualify for the vote.
Poll books
• Evidence of who voted comes from poll books
• Act of 1696 for regulating parliamentary
elections required written return of the poll
• Between 1696 and 1872 (secret ballot act) the
returning officer of every county election (and
from 1711 every borough election) had to
return a copy of the poll
• These were held in Crown office of Chancery.
In 1907 they were destroyed.
• Local copies do survive.
Early manuscript poll book
for Bedfordshire, 1684/5.
Showing names of voters and
their residences
Early printed poll book from
Bedfordshire in 1705.
Contested Elections
Year
1761
1768
1774
1780
1784
1790
1796
1802
1805
1807
1812
1818
1820
1826
1830
1831
Boroughs
42
62
71
65
66
67
56
67
55
59
59
84
66
78
75
65
Counties
5
11
15
3
8
8
6
8
7
13
5
12
11
11
10
13
Total
47
73
86
68
74
75
62
75
62
72
64
96
77
89
85
78
%
18
27
32
26
28
28
23
28
23
27
24
36
29
33
32
29
Ritual
• Crowds at election contests could be numbered in
thousands, rather than hundreds.
• Candidates processed to the hustings in a great parade, led
by flag bearers and bands playing the raucous election
songs of the time.
• Successful candidates were ‘chaired’ through the streets
and alleyways of the town. Chairs vividly decorated with
the colours and symbols of the new members of
parliament.
• Losing candidates could also be chaired and if the
successful MPs were particularly unpopular, effigies were
carried round the town before being ceremoniously and
publicly burnt.
Typical Hustings Scene
Hogarth – Chairing the Member
Parliamentary Reform
• Economic reform (often supported by Tories): removal from
voting of government placeholders and pensioners,
distribution of more seats to counties. Eg Wyvill’s Yorkshire
Association called for the redistribution of seats to
counties.
• Fairer representation of interests (often supported by
Whigs). Eliminate some of the rotten boroughs and redistribute their seats to major unrepresented towns.
Supported patronage making a distinction between
nomination and influence respectively.
• More radical proposals: broader franchise; redistribution of
seats; shorter parliaments; secret ballot. Move away from
representation of property towards representation of
people (See Cartwright, Take Your Choice!)
Pressure for Reform
• Burdett’s group attempted to chip away at the
resistance to reform:
• Tierney introduced measure to curb election
expenses
• Burdett raised reform in a debate about
economic reform
• 1820 Grampound disenfranchised & seats
redistributed to Yorkshire
• Catholic Emancipation 1828
• Russell introduced bills for the reform of Penryn
and East Retford. Passed in the Commons but not
in Lords.
Political Unions
• 1829-30 reform agitation revived
• July 1829 London Radical Association was formed
• December 1829 Birmingham Political Union led
by Thomas Attwood
• In Leeds and Manchester unions were split
between w/c & m/c. In Leeds were 4 rival
organisations
• Francis Place formed National Political Union in
October 1831 which aimed at co-ordinating
agitation. Failed to replace the BPU
• William Lovett and Hetherington set National
Union of the Working Classes.
Medal struck in 1830 to support
political unions. On this side is a
bust of Thomas Attwood (founder
of political unions) Text: The purity
of the constitution. The peace and
safety of the kingdom.
Text: The Reform Bill Nothing Less.
Bust of Earl Grey
Nature of Political Unions
• LoPatin argues are direct links between
political unions and the Corresponding
Societies of the 1790s.
• Also represented moderate m/c. Attwood
argued should represent the ‘industrious
classes’
• Greatest concentration in North and the
Midlands – in all over 120 individual political
unions were formed between 1830 and 1832.
• Ultimately, they endorsed the reform
objectives of the Whig ministry
Election of 1830
• Only 89 seats were contested and only 175 new
members were returned to Commons.
• But public opinion was vocal was clear & was
against Wellington's administration
• Brougham and Grey made it clear they would
press for reform.
• Wellington came out against it. On the eve of
Broughams motion government were defeated
on minor issue & resigned
• On 17th November 1830, for the first time, a
ministry pledged to parliamentary reform took
office.
Draft Reform Bill
• 50 boroughs lost franchise; 54 lost 1 MP; 6 towns
given 2 MPs & 22 towns 1 MP; 6 more seats given
to London; 22 counties were to have 2 extra
seats; 7 1 extra seat;
• Was in favour of the secret ballot
• Recommended higher qualification of £20 to
mitigate effects of ballot
• Five year parliaments to be introduced.
• Non residents lost their right to vote;
• More polling places & voter registration Ideas of
responsible citizenship accepted but concepts of
universal rights rejected.
From Bill to Act
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24 January 1831 cabinet amended the committee's draft - striking out the
proposal for the secret ballot and lowering the franchise again to £10
householders.
1 March 1831 bill was introduced to the Commons by Russell.
22 March at the second reading the Bill was passed by only 302 votes to 301.
18 April bill defeated at its third reading by 299 votes to 291.
May 1831 general election with Whig landslide.
Second Reform bill introduced and won its second reading by 367 votes to 231
In committee stages Marquis of Chandos won amendment that fifty pound tenants
at will could enjoy the franchise in the counties
21 September bill defeated in Lords by 41 votes.
Grey introduced slightly amended third bill.
13 April 1832 Lords rejected the third Reform bill by 184 votes to 175.
May days: Britain close to revolution.
Wellington attempted to form a minority ministry but failed
Grey used the creation of peers as a threat and in September 1832 the bill got
through the Lords with a majority of 9.
The first election to be held on the new franchise was December 1832.
What changed?
• Were continuities: procedures and rituals
survived; patrons used same techniques
• But Lords, monarchy, church and people all
changed roles after 1832
Electoral effects
• Over 40 pocket boroughs survived + 12 which
regularly returned same families
• 8 English boroughs with electorates less than
200
• Southern rural bias continued. London underrepresented
Positive electoral changes
• Registration: boosted party organisation and
canvassing; candidates could locate voters
accurately; encouraged people to see
themselves as voters
• Number of voters participating increased
dramatically after 1832
• Partisan voting is the norm (97% of Newark’s
electorate cast straight party votes in 1841)
Number of Voters 1831-1839
600000
500000
Voters
400000
Counties
300000
Boroughs
200000
100000
0
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
Year
1836
1837
1839
Election
No. of Voters
1826
106,397
1830
88,216
1831
74,638
1832
390,700
1835
272,946
Summary
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Participation increases
Organisation of elections
Public more politicised
2 main political parties benefited
National politics increases
1832 was an opportunity