This is a piece of legislation widely hailed as the start of modern democracy in Britain, and it was an incredibly long and hard fought battle to get it onto the statute books. It was in part inspired by the fact that Britain’s population had changed over the centuries since the electoral districts had been established. Britain was increasingly urbanised, and there had been a significant shift in population to the industrial, northern towns and cities. In fact some places – called rotten boroughs – had few, if any electors at all, such as Old Sarum, the population of which had moved down to the plain to form Salisbury, and there were several towns which voted for MPs that were actually under the sea as a result of coastal erosion. By contrast, towns such as Manchester had no MPs, and many locals didn’t want them, as the voting process was so open to fraud and bribery.
Added to this was the economic collapse following the Napoleonic Wars, with horrific numbers of people starving and homeless, a situation made worse by the Tory government of mostly landowners, passing a series of Corn Laws that ensured a minimum wage for corn, and banning the import of any from abroad, so the price of food soared, adding to the already widespread misery. Food rioting had been intermittent throughout the 18th century, sometimes caused by crop failures but increasingly from farmers and others hoarding and speculating in grain, combined with growing numbers of landlords failing to ensure the care of their tenants.
In the wake of what happened in France, and the growing population and increasing attempts by workers to organise into political groups and early trade unions, many people were increasingly afraid of Britain becoming ungovernable, which had happened for a short time in some places in the 1760s. Whig politicians, often Non Conformists, often involved in campaigns for the abolition of the slave trade, women and children’s rights and other good causes, increasingly campaigned for more people – ie not just those with land – to be allowed to vote, hence the Reform Act.
This is from the book Pinecone by Jenny Uglow, about a talented female architect from Cumbria:
“Wellington’s resignation in November 1830 opened the way for a Whig administration led by Lord Grey… who had been campaigning for reform now for nearly forty years. In the following March Lord John Russell introduced he first Reform Bill, correcting abuses, removing rotten and pocket boroughs and extending the franchise to many more middle-class voters. This was steered through the Commons but defeated in committee, and the tensions in the House were such that Grey called for a dissolution. In the subsequent elections the Whigs trounced the Tories….
When the new government met, Russell brought in the second Reform Bill. Once again the Lords rejected it (the bishops’ vote was crucial), but not before a dramatic intervention by Henry Brougham, now Lord Chancellor, who flung himself on his knees with his arms open wide, exhorting his fellow Lords: ‘By all you hold most dear – by all the ties that bind every one of us to our common order and our common country, I solemnly adjure you – I warn you – I implore you – yea, on my bended knees, I supplicate you – reject not this Bill.’ More riots followed the rejection.’
Brougham and others did not give up the fight – they could not. He wrote to a friend ‘The reform feeling is not dead, but sleeps,
In December 1831 the third Reform Bill was introduced, and passed by the House of Commons on 23 March 1832. .
As if the rioting and starvation was not enough, cholera arrived in London in February and gradually spread throughout the country. Showing a thoroughly traditional response to an epidemic, the government ordered a ‘National Day of Fasting and Humiliation’.
As Uglow continues:
‘..with parliament in turmoil. The Reform Bill moved inexorably towards passing. In April, when Grey resigned after a deadlock in the Lords and Wellington failed to form a government, many observers worried that the country was on the brink of revolution. Some protesters swore to withhold taxes and called fro a run on the banks. But in May William IV accepted Grey’s suggestion that he should crate new peers to force the Bill though the Lords and the Great Reform Act finally became law on 7 June 1832.’
It is utterly terrifying to think what might have happened if this legislation had not become law. Virtually every major town and city saw widespread rioting. Bristol had the biggest and most prolonged, triggered by the arrival of the Recorder for the annual assizes. He was met on the outskirts of the city and pelted with rocks, then had to flee the mayor’s house when it was attacked. Over several days, rioters broke open and destroyed the city’s two jails, and set fire to the Mayor’s house, the Bishop’s palace, and large swathes of private property. After a while it ceased to be a political protest, just a lot of very angry, out of control and mostly drunken people on the rampage, and in the absence of a police force, there was nobody to stop them. The novelist-to-be Charles Kingsley watched the flames from his school, and engineer I K Brunel was drafted in as special constable, as police were yet to be invented, but these disturbances brought them much closer.
These riots also brought to a head problems with the clergy who were largely hated for their opposition to reform, whilst neglecting heir flocks and buildings.
Britain has a lot of commemorations, now generally related to the two wars of the 20th century, but there used to be huge celebrations for the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo, and of course, Guy Fawkes or Bonfire night continues. Left leaning folk celebrate the Tolpuddle Martyrs, early trade unionists who were transported for their plans, but I have never heard of any call for a celebration of the Great Reform Act finally becoming law.
texthistory 