The Struggle for Democracy

Parliamentary Reform, from Rotten Boroughs to Today

Roger Mason

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780750956260
• eBook ISBN: 9780750964609
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

Prior to the 1832 Reform Act the electoral system was rife with corruption and in desperate need of reform. In England and Wales only about 12 per cent of adult men had the vote and the proportion was even less in Scotland and Ireland. Women did not vote at all. A single person controlled a rotten borough that returned two Members of Parliament, and for a number of years one of them was the prime minister. Furthermore, not only did voting take place in public, so landlords could and did evict tenants who voted against their wishes, but voting qualifications also differed from place to place. With the use of many fascinating anecdotes, Roger Mason tells how we got from then to now. All the major reforms are covered: Catholic Emancipation, further Reform Acts, the end of the House of Lords veto and, of course, votes for women. This fascinating history offers a complete insight into the way we have voted from the beginnings of Parliament through to the present day.

1

The Unreformed Parliament

In The Sound of Music Julie Andrews memorably sang, ‘Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start’. It is sound advice for this book. The first two landmarks in the story of Parliamentary Reform are Catholic Emancipation, which was achieved in 1829 and is the subject of Chapter 2, and the Great Reform Act of 1832. This first chapter briefly describes the development of Parliament from the very beginning, and then moves on to the state of the unreformed Parliament prior to 1832.

The English Parliament is often, and with some justification, said to be the mother of parliaments, and it is certainly one of the oldest. It was not invented and did not have a clearly defined starting date, or even an unclearly defined starting date. It evolved, and of course continues to do so. At times the evolution was rapid, but for long periods there were very few changes.

The different parts of England and later England itself were originally governed by absolute rulers, the chief or monarch. He (with due respect to Boudica the personal pronoun is carefully chosen) was a virtual dictator, and if necessary got his way by the exercise of force. He could only be thwarted by greater force or by assassination.

The earliest assembly worth mentioning is the Saxon Witan, which was summoned at the discretion of the king. He called whom he liked and he did so when he liked. The Witan could inform the king and perhaps influence the king, but it could not overrule the king. After the Norman Conquest there was a small but permanent inner council of advisers and from time to time the king would also call additional earls, barons and churchmen. This council formed the basis of what in time would become the House of Lords. For many years county moots had included a representative element. After the Conquest these became known as county courts and incorporated the tentative concept of representative local government. Representatives of the county courts formed the early basis of what in time would become the House of Commons.

Of course, as all schoolchildren should know but perhaps don’t, in 1215 King John sealed Magna Carta, which required him to listen to the barons and at least up to a point accept their advice. The use of the word ‘parliament’ commenced in England in 1236. It is significant that the word is derived from the French word ‘parler’, which means to talk or discuss. It is not derived from a word meaning to legislate or decide.

The forerunner of the modern Parliament was set up in 1265 by Simon de Montfort, the nobleman who was leading a rebellion against Henry III. As well as the barons this included representatives from each county, and also from the cities and towns. De Montfort was killed in battle soon afterwards, but Henry’s son Edward I developed the institution when he became king in 1272. Edward summoned Parliament forty-six times during his thirty-five-year reign. As well as nobles and churchmen there were elections for two representatives from each county (the knights of the shires) and for two representatives from selected cities and towns (the burgesses).

An essential part of the Parliament’s work was to agree taxes. After this had been accomplished the work of the knights of the shires, the burgesses and the clergy was usually done. The king would then discuss laws and other matters with the earls, barons, bishops and abbots.

The representatives of the counties were publicly elected at county court meetings. The process for electing burgesses, who represented the boroughs, varied from town to town. These arrangements did not substantially alter until the 1832 Reform Act. After the early seventeenth century there were very few changes in which cities and towns sent representatives to Parliament, and after the fifteenth century there were not many changes concerning who was allowed to vote.

The power of Parliament relative to that of the monarch progressively increased after the death of Edward I in 1307. Apart from anything else a civil war was won by Parliament, and Charles I was executed. Furthermore, in 1688 Parliament removed James II and invited the Protestant couple William and Mary to be joint sovereigns. In the following year passage of the Bill of Rights was secured. This laid down the limits on the power of the Crown and the rights of Parliament. Subsequently the power of the monarch relative to Parliament waxed and waned. In 1780 a disgruntled House of Commons passed the motion ‘that the power of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished’.

The English Parliament became the Parliament of Great Britain in 1707 upon the union of England and Wales with Scotland. This in turn became the Parliament of the United Kingdom upon the admission of Irish constituencies and members in 1801. Appendix A shows the full list of parliamentary constituencies at the time of the 1830 general election. The breakdown by type of seat and by country is as follows:

	Borough	County	University	Total
England	202	40	2	244
Wales	12	12	0	24
Scotland	15	30	0	45
Ireland	33	32	1	66
Total	262	114	3	379

This does not mean that there were 379 MPs and it does not mean that the distribution between the four countries was in these proportions. The total number of MPs was 658, the main reason for the discrepancy being that most constituencies returned two members. The distribution of the MPs was as follows:

	Borough	County	University	Total
England	402	82	4	488
Wales	12	12	0	24
Scotland	15	31	0	46
Ireland	34	64	2	100
Total	463	189	6	658

England appears to have been the winner at the expense of the other three countries, and some cynics will say that it was ever thus. Within England the south did better than the north and cynics will probably make the same comment. The county of Cornwall had no fewer than twenty-one boroughs, each returning two members. This meant that, with the two county members, Cornwall sent no fewer than forty-four MPs to Westminster. This was 6.7 per cent of the total for the UK. Lancashire, including Manchester, Liverpool and other large towns, sent fourteen MPs. Accurate population figures for the time are hard to obtain (especially for Ireland) but the following is typical of several estimates for 1831, the year of a primitive census in Great Britain.

	Population	Population Percentage	MPs Percentage
England and Wales	14.0m	57.9%	77.9%
Scotland	2.4m	9.9%	7.0%
Ireland	7.8m	32.2%	15.1%
Total	24.2m	100.0%	100.0%

The Irish figures are for the whole of Ireland and are at a time approximately fifteen years before the potato famine and emigration significantly reduced the island’s population.

It is true that 658 MPs seems an awful lot. The United Kingdom, then as now, had one of the world’s largest legislatures. The House of Commons currently has 650 MPs and many people think that the number should be reduced. For comparison purposes it should be remembered that the whole of Ireland was included in 1831, but that the Republic of Ireland is now an independent country. Only Northern Ireland is within the United Kingdom. The United States, with a population in excess of 320 million, manages with 100 senators and 435 members of the House of Representatives.

All but eight of the English boroughs returned two members, six returned one member and two boroughs returned four. All the Scottish boroughs (or burghs) returned one and so did all the Irish ones except Dublin.

All the Irish and English counties returned two members, with the exception of Yorkshire which after 1826 returned four. All the Welsh and Scottish counties returned just one. However, in an extraordinary exception, three pairs of Scottish counties voted at alternate elections and were disenfranchised at the other.

Apart from Yorkshire, after 1826 the counties were treated equally, regardless of their populations. In Wales, Anglesey had the same weighting as Glamorganshire. In England tiny Rutland had no more than 600 electors, whereas Yorkshire had more than 20,000. The average for English counties was around 4,000. Interestingly the United States Senate operates on the same principle. Alaska (population less than 750,000) and California (population more than 38 million) each send two senators to Washington. Districts represented in the House of Representatives are though of roughly equal size.

The voting qualifications differed between the counties and the boroughs, and they differed enormously from borough to borough. In the counties it was simple: all forty-shilling freeholders had the vote. A forty-shilling freeholder was a person who owned the freehold of land that was capable of bringing in rent of at least forty shillings per year. Since the fifteenth century the expanding population and inflation had meant that an increasing number of adult males had the vote. Exercising this right caused some of them considerable trouble and perhaps expense. There was usual...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 The Unreformed Parliament
• 2 Catholic Emancipation
• 3 The Clamour for Reform
• 4 The First Reform Bill and Its Failure
• 5 The Second Reform Bill and Its Failure
• 6 Success at Last: The Third Reform Bill
• 7 An Assessment of the ‘Great Reform Act’
• 8 The Rise and Fall of Chartism
• 9 1848–1866: A Developing Head of Steam
• 10 Disraeli’s Triumph: The Second Reform Act
• 11 An Assessment of the Second Reform Act
• 12 The Secret Ballot and the Reining-In of Corruption
• 13 The Twin Acts of 1884 and 1885
• 14 Enter Mr Bradlaugh: The Oaths Act 1888
• 15 The 1911 Parliament Act and What Came Before
• 16 Votes for Women
• 17 Representation of the People Act 1918
• 18 Developments Since 1918
• Appendix A List of Parliamentary Constituencies at the Time of the 1830 General Election
• Appendix B List of Parliamentary Constituencies Immediately after the 1832 Reform Act
• Appendix C Redistribution of Seats Provided by the Reform Act (England And Wales) 1867 and the Reform Act (Scotland) 1868
• Appendix D Full Details of the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885
• Appendix E Dates and Events in the Journey to Parliamentary Reform
• Copyright