The Reform Acts of 1832, 1867, and 1884 (original) (raw)

The Reform Bill [of 1832] was not calculated materially to improve the general composition of the Legislature. The good it has done, which is considerable, chiefly in this, that, by being so great a change, it has weakened the superstitious feeling against great changes. — John Stuart Mill, “Coleridge”

The Reform Acts — extending the right to vote

• Introduction to the Reform Acts

The Reform Act of 1832

• Terms of the 1832 Reform Act
• The Reform Act Crisis
• The Bristol 1832 Reform Bill Riots — a late-Victorian view
• The Duke of Wellington's Speech on Reform
• How Did the Tories Recover after the 1832 Reform Act?
• “That Great Reform Bill”: Chesterton's attack on the reform bill as the result of an an alliance between the landed aristocrats and the rich manufacturers

The Reform Act of 1867

• What was at stake and what was reformed in the 1867 Reform Act?
• The Reform Meeting in Hyde Park (1867)
• 14 Editorial cartoons in Fun about Disraeli, Gladstone, Bright and the Second Reform Bill (1866-67)

The Reform Act of 1884

• The 1884 Reform Act had a greater effect on Ireland than on Great Britain
• A political cartoonist looks at the effects the 1884 and 1885 acts on Tory candidates

Related material

• Chartism and the right to vote
• Victorian Political Campaigns and Elections
• Electoral Fraud in Victorian Times

Victorian Web Political History

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