The Great Reform Act, 1832 (AQA GCSE History)

Summary 

Demands for changes to the voting system grew through the 1800s. This resulted in deaths, violence and public disorder. People in power feared there could be a revolution similar to the one in France in 1789. The French Revolution led to the overthrow of the entire ruling class, many of them were executed. As a result, the Great Reform Act of 1832 was passed in the UK. However, this did not bring the vote to working people and did not stop the demands for reform.

Why was the Great Reform Act passed?

• The government had banned large public gatherings after the Peterloo Massacre but it did not stop people from campaigning for change

• In 1829, Thomas Attwood formed the Birmingham Political Union of the Lower and Middle Classes of People (BPU)

  • The BPU organised a petition 

  • The petition was signed by 8,000 people, they demanded that all men who pay taxes should be able to vote

• The petition was rejected but others began to copy Attwood’s methods

• When Attwood began to encourage people to stop paying their taxes until they got the vote, those in power became concerned

New government and new king

• In 1830, the Conservative Party was voted out of power

  • The party had formed the government since the start of the 19^th century and had resisted all calls for change,

•  In the same year, King George IV died and was replaced by William IV

•  The new Whig government, led by Prime Minister Earl Grey and the new King were much more open to electoral reform

Rioting for reform

• In 1831, the House of Commons passed two reform bills but the House of Lords, which the Conservatives still dominated, refused to pass them

  • The result was serious rioting in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham, Leicester, Derby and other places across the country

  •  The death and destruction caused led to fears that a British revolution would soon happen if action wasn’t taken

  • As a result, the Great Reform Act was finally passed by the Lords in 1832

Features of the Great Reform Act

• The Great Reform Act:

  • Reorganised the boroughs and counties 

  • Changed the rules over who was entitled to vote

  • Of the rotten boroughs, 56 lost their MPs and a further 31 had their number of MPs halved to one

  • There were 42 towns and cities which gained MPs

• In the counties, the franchise was extended to shopkeepers, small landowners and farmers who rented the land they farmed

•  In the boroughs, all homeowners and those who paid over £10 a year in rent could now vote

• The number of men who could vote increased from around 435,000 to over 650,000

How much change did the Great Reform Act bring?

• The Great Reform Act did not stop the demands for change because:

  • Working-class people were still unable to vote

  • This led to the birth of Chartism and demands for all men to be able to vote

  • Voting was still not conducted in secret – meaning people could still be bullied or bribed

  • Women were banned from voting

• The franchise had been extended to middle-class men who used their votes to bring about more reform in the future