Gladstone' second ministry

Question 1

Why was there still need for further voting reform after the 2nd reform act

Answer 1

The SRA had given the vote to householders in boroughs but not the counties. There was an idea that townsmen were more knowledgeable about govt and therefore better able to vote than county people. Even if this were true, it was impossible to make a clear distinction. Borough constitutiencies included some villages with agricultural labourers. County ones included medium sized towns and around 500,000 coalminers who seemed more like industrial workers. It was impossible to defend such anomalies

Strong arguement for redistributing MPs too, as about 1/4 of the voters elected 2/3 of the MPs, but this did not generally trouble politicians much at the time

Question 2

What did G say in 1872 about the distinction between county and borough votes?

Answer 2

That it should not continue

Question 3

How did the 1874 GE encouraged liberals like G to stand on a programme of reform in 1880

Answer 3

Because the conservatives won many county seats in this election. G thought that giving workers the right to vote in the counties would undermine the conservative strength there and so help the liberals in future elections

Question 4

What political reform was G less keen on

Answer 4

Redistributing commons seats

Question 5

Was it public pressure or govt decision that caused these reforms to come about?

Answer 5

Govt decision. G said in a speech to the commons that he was not concerned whether or not agricultural labourers wanted to vote but that ‘the state wants it for them’

Question 6

Why was the 1884 TRA able to pass relatively easily through the commons

Answer 6

Because the conservatives did not vote against it

Question 7

Why did conservatives in the lords defeat the TRA

Answer 7

Because there were no plans for redistributing seats

Question 8

Why were the conservatives in the HoL keen on making sure that reform included redistribution of seats

Answer 8

Because while the liberals stood to gain from extending the vote, the conservatives stood to gain from the redistribution of seats

Question 9

What were the similarities and differences between the pressure for reform in 1884 compared to 1867

Answer 9

Public demonstrations in favour of reform and against the lords. Estimated that 1200-1300 protest meetings were held, many of which were large demonstrations. Over 100,000 men from nearby counties were reported to have marched in a big meeting at Hyde Park. Similarities to the pressure on parliament in 1867

However, the lords were bargaining with the liberals about how the reform should take place rather than trying to stop reform altogether

In 1867 politicians debated about whether there should be reform at all. In 1884 there was general agreement between the parties about extending the vote. Politicians haggled over the details here as they attempted to gain the most advantage for their party

Question 10

How did the TRA expand on the SRA

Answer 10

The SRA had given the vote to householders and £10 lodgers in boroughs. The TRA extended the same qualifications to the counties. Whereas there had been separate acts for Scotland and Ireland in 1867-8, there was now one uniform act for the entire UK

Question 11

Who could vote according to the TRA

Answer 11

Rate paying householders and £10 lodgers if they had been resident for at least 1 year

Question 12

Who could not vote according to the TRA

Answer 12

Men who had moved and not been in their homes long enough

Men who were not householders - this included soldiers and sailors in the armed forces, servants living with employers and sons living with their families

Men receiving poor relief

All women

Anyone under 21

Most men who could not vote were off the electorate register because they had not lived at their house for long enough. An elector had to live in an area for a year before he could go on the register and this did not come into force for another 6 months, meaning one might have to wait 18-24 months after moving house before they could vote again

About 12% of men did not vote because they were not householders or lodgers

Many lodgers had difficulty in getting themselves registered and might have to defend their right in electoral registration courts

Question 13

Who could vote more than once according the the TRA

Answer 13

Men with degrees from any of the 5 universities with the right to elect MPs

Men who lived as householders in one constituency and qualified for the vote by owning or occupying property in another - generally business premises

About 7% of votes were extra votes

Question 14

How much did the electorate increase as a result of the TRA

Answer 14

Went from 3.5 to 5.5 million. Overall the increase was about 60%, but in Ireland it was about 230%

Question 15

What happened to give an amendment to the TRA give women the vote

Answer 15

Rejected by the commons

Question 16

Why did the radical think the TRA had not gone far enough?

Answer 16

Because it did not grant universal manhood suffrage, as the qualification to vote was still to be a householder

Question 17

What were G’s views of voting qualifications based on

Answer 17

19th century standards rather than democratic ones

Question 18

What % of men could vote following the TRA

Answer 18

60%

Question 19

How were MPs distributed under the TRA

Answer 19

Previously there was a divide between borough and county constituencies, with most areas sending 2 MPs to parliament. This system was largely replaced by smaller areas with roughly equal population, each electing a single MP. Towns with a pop between 50,000 -165,000 kept two MPs in the traditional way. The pop of the largest constituency was now only 8 times that of the smallest, instead of 250x as of before, but this still left large differences. Ireland kept over 100 MPs, so the average Irish constituency had just over half as many voters as the average English one

Question 20

Effects of the third reform act

Answer 20

Big majority working class electorate for the first time, though historians have debated how significant this was. Some workers excluded because they received poor relief, moved house or had lodgings that were not worth £10 a year. Historians therefore used to assume that the proportion of the working class who made up the electorate was much smaller than the proportion of the working class that made up the pop as a whole. However, Duncan Tanner has used local research to suggest that these factors actually reduced the working class proportion of the electorate by no more than 4-5%. The group most effected by the residency requirement were young men (both middle and working class) as they tended to move around more than older men.

Working class majority was slow to produce working class politicians. Gradual shift in power from the landowners to the middle class. Two thirds of MPs had come from landowning families in 1865 and this came down to under 1/3 by 1900

Social makeup of cabinet gradually changed, shift from a landowning to middle class majority among ministers in the early 20th century. New conservative and Liberal MPs were mainly middle class indsutrialists or professionals after 1885, and even most British county MPs were no longer from the traditional landed classes by 1914

Seat redistribution at first seemed to help the conservatives. Having previously done badly in the towns, they could now win seats in the middle class suburbs, but it is not clear they benefitted so much in the long run, and they lost out over Ireland being represented

Party organisations and national campaigns became even more important. Both main parties continued to try and develop a national network of clubs and associations, but the conservatives had the most success. This was partly because getting funds was so vital, and they had the wealthier supporters

Question 21

What proportion of the population could vote as a result of the TRA

Answer 21

5.5 million out of 35 million

Question 22

What did the 1885 Redistribution of Seats Act do?

Answer 22

Brought an end to the over representation of rural areas and the under representation of the industrial towns and cities. Most constituencies were now equally sized in terms of population and single member. This meant fair representation in Britain for the first time

Question 23

Why was the 1883 Corrupt and Illegal Practises Act necessary

Answer 23

Several laws passed in the mid 19th century to stop candidates bribing the voters with food, drink and money, but they had little effect. Bribery was most obvious in smaller boroughs which kept their MPs despite having few voters such as Bewdley and Sandwich. Commissioners investigating bribery there in the 1880 GE produced a strong case for reform

Question 24

Effects of the 1883 Corrupt and Illegal Practises Act

Answer 24

Limited the number of paid election workers and the total amount candidates could spend

Evidence suggests it reduced bribery considerably…

Officially recorded election spending in 1885 was about 25% lower than in 1880

Far fewer petitions to parliament about election bribery

Parties now relied much more on voters than paid election workers