The Struggle for Parliamentary Reform. The Reform Act of 1832

The Whig party began to advocate moderate measures of reform which appealed to the industrialists. The Whig leadership began to disassociate itself from the principles of the Vienna Congress which disregarded the national interests of the peoples of Europe. Both at home and abroad the Whig party began to carry out policies answering the interests of the industrial capitalists and the middle class. The moderate Tory politicians such as Canning, Peel, Huskisson and Palmerston were soon to join this newly revived party.

Peel decided to reform the police system. In 1829 he replaced the old 'Bow Street runners' with 1,000 new policemen dressed in tall hats and blue belted coats. They became known as the 'bobbies', 'Bobby' being another form of Peel's first name, Robert. This new service was controlled by the home office at Whitehall.

Huskisson's name was associated with important reforms in the field of trade. Finding that the British protective trade and navigation laws were causing other nations to build up similar trade walls, he persuaded Parliament in 1823 to re-examine the Navigation Acts which had been adopted in the seventeenth century against Dutch rivalry. Parliament in 1823 passed a law which provided for reciprocity treaties with foreign countries. This meant that foreign vessels were admitted to British ports on condition that the country to which the ships belonged gave similar privileges to British ships in their ports.

Meanwhile, the Irish struggle for independence was gaining momentum though in form it was religious. The Catholics in Ireland insisted on emancipation. They were still denied seats in the British parliament, even to represent Ireland, which was overwhelmingly Catholic in religion. Daniel O'Connell organized a Catholic association which headed the struggle. Faced with the option of civil war Parliament passed the Emancipation Act of 1829 giving the Catholics of Ireland election right.

In England itself the reforming Tories made concessions to the workers in order to defuse the growing social tension. In 1824 – 5 Combination Laws were passed by Parliament allowing wage workers to form trade unions to secure adequate wages and hours of labour. However, another Act was passed by Parliament threatening severe punishment for those who took industrial action against strike­breakers. Despite this limitation new trade unions began to emerge all throughout the country.

In 1825 – 7 England faced a typical cyclical crisis of capitalism. It affected every branch of the economy, especially the textile industry. Thousands of workers became unemployed, and as a consequence social tension was growing in the country.

In 1830 the July revolution took place in France and it gave a powerful fillip to the movement for parliamentary reform in England.

The Whigs and the radicals now united in the emerging Liberal party saw the gravity of the political situation in the country and were keen on having parliamentary reform introduced.

A month before the French July revolution George IV died and William IV (1830 – 1837) was crowned as king. The reformers made use of the situation and handed in petitions to reform the electoral system.

When the Tory majority in the Lords threw out the Reform Bill for a second time, Lord Grey asked the king to make some more Whig peers. The Tories were thus threatened. When the Bill came up again to the upper house, the latter surrendered and did not vote against it. Hence in 1832 the Reform Bill was passed, and became law.

After the passing of the Bill it became apparent that the industrial bourgeoisie was the greatest winner and practically nothing was gained by the working class. Britain was developing from an oligarchy government dominated by the aristocracy and commercial and financial bourgeoisie to a bourgeois-democratic system dominated by the capitalists in alliance with the aristocracy.

The Reform Act took 143 parliamentary seats away from the pocket and rotten boroughs. Representation was given to the new large towns like Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham. It increased the number of voters from 435,000 to 670,000. However, this was a small number of electors in a population of 14 million. Most Englishmen, especially the working class, and all English women, were still without the vote, and were to remain so until much later. In fact, only about one person out of forty could vote. In the counties the forty-shilling freeholders continued to vote, but to them were added tenant farmers who paid at least 50 pounds a year in rent. The right to vote was extended to any householder who paid a yearly rental of ten pounds in boroughs or who owned such a place.

However, not all the conditions of suffrage that had been insisted on were accepted. There was no secret ballot, no payment of deputies. Nevertheless, the rotten boroughs had been abolished and together with them the notorious practices which were carried out openly. Now the big industrial centres received representation and this gave precedent for the working class to carry on its fight for economic and social rights.

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