Constitutional Monarchy:

MonarchHouse of Lords

House of Commons

House of Lords

• Have a peerage title (duke, Viscount, etc.)• All male peers have an inherited seat in the

House of Lords• Main interests are in the Land, agriculture

House of Commons• Made up of the Gentry (who are untitled or

have a non-noble title such as ‘Sir’, or ‘Baronet’)

• Are elected by a small number of important property owners (about 4% of the population)

• Have interests in land and agriculture, but also in commerce, industry, and trade.

Whigs (liberals)

• In favour of constitutional monarchy• Support the Hanoverian line of Protestant

Kings (descendants of William of Orange)• Support free trade, liberal market• Support abolition of Slave trade• Support tolerance for Protestant Dissenters• Home Rule for Ireland (limited indpendence)

Tories (Conservatives)

• Support absolute monarchy• Support the deposed Stuart dynasty (descendants

of James II, who was sent into exile)• Do not tolerate Protestant Dissenters, only the

Church of England (Anglicanism)• Do not support abolition of Slave trade• Support controlled market, limited trade• No Home rule for Ireland (no political

independence).

Coffee House in London

Early 19th century Press

Daniel O’Connell

Daniel O’Connell

A so-called ‘Monster meeting’ organised by Daniel O’Connell on the Hill of Tara

Dunwich: A ‘Rotten Borough’

The Franchise

• The Franchise = people who can vote• Small group of property owners (men only)• About 200,000 people in total• Large landowners often influenced how other

people voted, through obligation and corruption

The Reform Act 1832

• 26 English counties were divided into two divisions with each division being represented by two members.

• 8 English counties and 3 Welsh counties each received an additional representative.

• Yorkshire, which was represented by four MPs before the Act was given an extra two MPs (so that each of its three ridings was represented by two MPs).

• 22 large towns were given two MPs.• The Franchise was extended to anyone with property

worth over £10 (about 650,000 people)

The People’s Charter 1838• DEMANDS:• A vote for every man twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and not undergoing

punishment for a crime.• The Secret Ballot – To protect the elector in the exercise of his vote.• No Property Qualification for Members of Parliament – thus enabling the constituencies

to return the man of their choice, be he rich or poor.• Payment of Members, thus enabling an honest trades-man, working man, or other

person, to serve a constituency; when taken from his business to attend to the interests of the country.

• Equal Constituencies, securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors, instead of allowing small constituencies to swamp the votes of large ones.

• Annual Parliament Elections, thus presenting the most effectual check to bribery and intimidation, since as the constituency might be bought once in seven years (even with the ballot), no purse could buy a constituency (under a system of universal suffrage) in each ensuing twelvemonth; and since members, when elected for a year only, would not be able to defy and betray their constituents as now.