But it came under increasing pressure throughout the s and 50s from the reformist movements. By the mids, Parliament was in the process of extending the vote to the working class. In , all voters had to be male adults over 21 years of age. The act all but doubled the electorate. The University of London was also given a seat.
The representation in Ireland remained the same. The Reform Act. Although the Conservative Party had opposed previous attempts to introduce parliamentary reform, the new government, led by Edward Smith-Stanley , 14th Earl of Derby, was now sympathetic to the idea. The Conservatives knew that if the Liberals returned to power, Gladstone was certain to try again. Benjamin Disraeli "feared that merely negative and confrontational responses to the new forces in the political nation would drive them into the arms of the Liberals and promote further radicalism" and decided that the Conservative Party had to change its policy on parliamentary reform.
Disraeli, the new leader of the House of Commons, argued that the Conservatives were in danger of being seen as an anti-reform party.
He reasoned that if the Conservatives could pilot a reform bill through Parliament, they might gain politically as the newly enfranchised in the boroughs might well vote Conservative out of gratitude. At the same time they could make sure the bill had the necessary precautions to preserve aristocratic power in the counties. In March Disraeli proposed his new Reform Act. It was a more moderate set of proposals than had been suggested by Gladstone.
Robert Cecil , 3rd Marquis of Salisbury, resigned in protest against this proposed extension of democracy. However, as Disraeli explained this had nothing to do with democracy: "We do not live - and I trust it will never be the fate of this country to live - under a democracy. On 21st March, , Gladstone made a two hour speech in the House of Commons , exposing in detail the inconsistencies of the bill.
On 11th April Gladstone proposed an amendment which would allow a tenant to vote whether or not he paid his own rates. Forty-three members of his own party voted with the Conservatives and the amendment was defeated. Gladstone was so angry that apparently he contemplated retirement to the backbenches. Members of the Reform League still advocated the need for universal suffrage. At a large rally in Birmingham , George Nuttall attacked both the Conservatives and Liberals for preventing the introduction of democracy: "The House of Commons hated reform and would never grant it until they could not withhold it.
The landlords, army lords, navy lords and law lords, who looked eagerly for a share of taxes for themselves and their dependants, would never let the people's nose from the grindstone if they could help it. But the people had the power in their hands if only they knew how to use it. Let them set their backs up, and show their bristles, and they would get the Reform Bill they wanted. They must show they are prepared to burst open the doors of the House of Commons should they be kept persistently closed against them.
He hoped they were not coming to an end of a peaceful agitation The people should rise in their might and majesty. If like the raging sea they should sweep on in their righteous indignation, every barrier set up against them - the aristocracy itself - might be swept into oblivion for ever.
On 18th April, , the Reform League's executive council met in London and unanimously condemned Disraeli's Bill as "partial and oppressive" and reaffirmed their commitment to "a vote for a man because he is a man".
Charles Bradlaugh called for a national demonstration to take place in Hyde Park. It was pointed out that this would be breaking the law but Bradlaugh's motion was passed by five votes to three.
The following day placards started to go up all over the country announcing a mass demonstration for universal manhood suffrage on 6th May. Spencer Walpole , the Home Secretary, announced that attending such a meeting would be illegal and that "all persons are hereby warned and admonished that they will attend any such meeting at their peril, and all her Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects are required to abstain from attending, aiding or taking part in any such meeting, or from entering the Park with a view to attend, aid or take part in any such meeting.
The Government arranged for troops of Hussars to be deployed in the park and thousands of special constables were sworn in.
However, so many demonstrators turned up it was decided to back down. In England and Wales that bill added , to an electorate of , The bill, in comparison with these increases of just under 50 per cent and just under 90 per cent respectively, produced an overall growth of a little less than 60 per cent.
Its effect, however, was qualitative as well as quantitative. The coal miners, who mosdy lived in industrially scarred countryside rather than in towns, were also brought within the franchise, thereby opening the way to much the largest group of working men representatives in Parliament. Women were not granted voting rights until the Act of , which enfranchised all men over 21 and women over thirty. This last bit of discrimination was eliminated 10 years later in by the Equal Franchise Act. Hobsbawm, Eric.
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