Details About The Reform Bill You Need To Know
Before being considered as an Act, any Bill has to pass through the two houses of the British Parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Reform Bill went through the same stages in the years 1832, 1867,1884, and 1885. The reform bill would be responsible for the expansion of the electorate that was a part of the entire House of Commons. The reform bill also rationalized the process of representation of the parliament body as well.
According to the sources, the first reform bill was created in order to serve the purpose of transferring the voting privileges from the smaller boroughs that were controlled by the nobility and providing them to the industrial towns that were highly populated.
There were other subsequent bills that were formed in order to provide a detailed and more democratic representation with the help of the expansion of voting privileges starting from the poverty levels that were higher to the less wealthy segments populated by people. In this article, there is a discussion about the reform bill definition and meaning along with some other important details that will help students.
When Was The First Reform Bill Created?
The first Reform Bill was necessitated mainly by some glaring inequalities in the representation that happened between the enfranchised rural areas that were traditional as well as the cities that were rapidly growing in the newly constructed and industrial portion of England.
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When it comes to the representation of the larger industrial centres such as Manchester and Birmingham, these were not very much represented. However, the parliamentary members would actually be returned from the “rotten boroughs”. These boroughs were actually the rural districts that were not really inhabited in any way. Some of the other structures that were represented would include the Pocket Boroughs as well where a single landowner or peer would have all the power and hence will be the one controlling the voting as well.
Power Politics and Protest Great Reform Act
The person who was responsible for the authoring of the first Reform Bill was Charles Grey who was the then Prime Minister of England. The bill along with some other bills such as the immigration bill was introduced to the House of Commons and then accepted in the month of March 1831. John Russell was the person who was responsible for the introduction and acceptance of the Reform Bill in the House of Commons. In the House of Commons, the Reform Bill came to effect due to it passing by just one vote. However, the House of Lords was not accepting the Reform Bill at all.
With that, there were some amendments made to the Reform Bill which then passed the House of Common without having any difficulty. But it still didn’t manage to pass through the House of Lords. This led to the creation of a huge uproar of support for the bill.
After the creation of the third Reform, Bill was turned down again by the House of Lords after passing through the House of Commons, Grey attempted to make a proposal to King William IV to grant him the permission to create Liberal peers who would carry the bill to the House of Lords without their objection.
However, when King William didn’t comply with the request, Grey threatened with resignation. The duke of Wellington was then called upon for the creation of a brand-new government. However, those efforts were a huge failure and hence King William had to sanction the inclusion of the 50 or more new peers. This was enough to pass the bill through the House of Lords and the Reform bill came to be known as the Reform Act.
Impact of The Great Reform Act 1832
With the inclusion of the first great reform act, there were major changes made to the antiquated electoral system that was practised in Britain. The seats were redistributed and the franchise conditions were also changed. About 56 different boroughs of England ended up losing the representation that they had entirely.
The representation of Cornwall was reduced to a mere number of 12. Also, about 42 new and different boroughs were readily created. The electorate of England also went through some major changes with the total electorate being increased by about 217,000. The qualifications required from the electorate were also reduced in order to ensure that smaller owners of the property would be able to cast their votes without any difficulty for the first time. However, the reform act also left some of the larger sections of the lower middle classes and the working classes without any voting rights.
The inclusion of the reform bill was definitely one of the most important points in British history, almost reaching up to the addition of the immigration bill. There were some significant changes that were made and due to that the face of the electoral system in England also changed a lot.
FAQs on Reform Bill
1. Write a note on the Reform bill definition and meaning.
The reform bill was the different bills that were made during the years of 1832, 1867, 1884, and 1885 in order to change the electoral system of England. It was seen that the voting privileges provided to the smaller boroughs were unjust towards the towns that were highly populated in the newly created industrial England. Hence the idea of the creation of the reform bill was introduced in order to ensure that these areas that were highly populated would have some sort of representation in the electoral system of England. The reform bill, after many failed attempts to pass through the House of Lords, finally was transformed into the great reform act in 1832.
2. What were the troubles associated with the passing of the reform bill?
The Prime Minister of England during that time period, Charles Grey was the person who was considered as the one responsible for the creation of the Reform Bill. This particular bill was introduced promptly to the House of Commons where it passed by just one vote due to the efforts of one John Russell. However, when it came to the House of Lords, the bill wasn’t passed. Even after making several amendments to the bill for the second and the third time, the House of Lords refused to accept the bill. It was after a threat of resignation from Charles Grey that King William VI provided him with the permission to appoint 50 new and liberal peers who would take the bill to the House of Lords without the objection of the members. It was then the Reform bill became the reform act of 1832.
