Reform of Parliament

Question 1

What is a Constitution?

Answer 1

A set of laws and agreed principles that set out rules on how a country’s governed.

Question 2

What is a constituency?

Answer 2

One of the areas into which the country was divided for election purposes. These varied considerably in geographical size and population.

Question 3

What were the three type of constituency in 1780?

Answer 3

• Counties
• Boroughs
• University’s

Question 4

How many MPs could each constituency vote in?

Answer 4

County (188MPs)
University (5MPs)
Boroughs (465)

Question 5

What was a borough?

Answer 5

A town or small city that had once been given special privileges by royal character.

Question 6

Who were able to vote in counties?

Answer 6

‘40 shilling freeholders’- anyone who owned land or property that was worth 40 shilling (£2) a year.

Question 7

Who could vote in a Scot and lot borough?

Answer 7

All adult males who paid local taxes (the ‘Scot and lot’) such as poor relief, could vote.

Question 8

Who could vote in open boroughs?

Answer 8

Men who met various qualifications, such as the direct payment of the local poor rates. In Preston, the vote was given to all men, whether resident or not, who were in the constituency at the time of the election.

Question 9

Who could vote in potwalloper boroughs?

Answer 9

All men who occupied a house (‘who had a family and boiled a pot’) could vote. This resulted in a large electorate (at least 700 men).

Question 10

What was a self-perpetuating clique?

Answer 10

A small group of individuals who had the power to maintain their position indefinitely.

Question 11

What was a rotten borough?

Answer 11

Areas which have once been areas of economic activity, but over time had become depopulated, but still retained their parliamentary representation. In some extreme cases, there were 10 or 20 voters in a borough.

Question 12

What was a pocket boroughs?

Answer 12

Boroughs where the size of the electorate was small; the biggest landowner in the areas had huge influence and was able to get himself or his nominee elected. ‘Pocket boroughs’ as the landowners were seen to have them in their ‘pocket’.

Question 13

Who could vote in University’s?

Answer 13

Members of the University.

Question 14

What was a corporation borough?

Answer 14

Voters were the members of the town council. These were self-perpetuating cliques who filled vacant seats on the council by nomination rather than election.

Question 15

What was plural voting?

Answer 15

Where voters had more than vote.

Question 16

Why was there plural voting?

Answer 16

• Most constituencies elected 2 MPs to the Commons, therefore eligible voters received 2 votes (one for each MP).
• Boroughs wer located within counties, and the wealthy met the requirements for both elections-thereby securing 4 votes.
• Landowners owned land all over the country and this meant that they could vote in multiple boroughs and counties.

Question 17

Example of a county which had multiple boroughs within it?

Answer 17

Gloucestershire

• Returned 2 MPs for being a county
• Contained 4 boroughs

Question 18

What were the problem with boroughs?

Answer 18

Many of the boroughs had been important in pre-industrial times but now how tiny populations and weren’t very important, still retained 2 MPs. New towns such as Manchester ( pop 182,000) and Birmingham (pop 144,000) had no borough MPs (still were represented through their county).

Question 19

What was the issue with the county representation?

Answer 19

Favoured the rural south, counties were much smaller in the south but still retained the same number of MP’s as a much larger county.

Question 20

How many MPs in total were voted into the House of Commons?

Answer 20

658

Question 21

How many electorates were there in 1780?

Answer 21

Estimated that in Wales and England there were 214,000 voters (11% of adult males) out of a population of 8 million.

Question 22

How often did elections take place in 1780?

Answer 22

Atleast one every seven years, had to be called a monarch died.

Question 23

What was the problem with elections?

Answer 23

• Very corrupt and bribery was rife

- Some boroughs there were the same number of candidates as there were seats available, no point in a election.

Question 24

What was virtual representation?

Answer 24

The MPs weren’t their to represent their voters, but to represent the interests that made up the economic and political life of the nation.

Question 25

How many MPs did each county return to the House of Commons?

Answer 25

2 MPs

Question 26

How many seats in the House of Commons were controlled by aristocrats in the 1780s?

Answer 26

Over 200 seats

Question 27

What are some defences for the un-reformed electoral system?

Answer 27

• Lasted hundreds of years, why change it when Britain was the most advanced industrial nation?
• As long as there were people in parliament who represented all parts of society, then it didn’t matter which constituencies any of them happened to represent.
• Pocket and rotten boroughs allowed for the emergence of talented and young men to rise up, for example Robert Peel.

Question 28

What does ‘vested interests’ mean?

Answer 28

In politics, individuals or groups of people who benefit from existing political arrangements, usually at the expense of others.

Question 29

What are some criticisms of the unreformed electoral system?

Answer 29

• Elections were very corrupt and there was a lot of intimidation of voters.
• Wealthy landowners controlled many boroughs and could vote in multiple counties and boroughs.
• Industrialisation in the Midlands and north-east, led to emergence of middle-class. Didn’t believe there interests were being met by the MPs in parliament and wanted reform.