Rule by the people

Not everyone was happy with the Reform Act. The Chartists wanted votes for all men. Later, the trade unions took up the same call. By 1866, the leaders of the main parties agreed. The Conservatives (who had been called Tories) passed a second Reform Act in 1867. The Liberals (formerly Whigs) passed a third one in 1884.

The 1867 Act gave the vote to working-class men in the towns. Farm labourers had to wait until 1884. But after the third Reform Act, most men could vote. (Women could not vote until 1918.) Also, from 1872 voting was secret. This meant that voters no longer had to follow the orders of their landlords or employers.

The Reform Acts took Britain well on the way to democracy - rule by the people. Some of the lords and gentry were alarmed and afraid. They thought that working men were too ignorant to have the vote. They expected wild men with crazy ideas to be elected as M.P.s. They said that rich men's property would be taken away.

In fact, the working men voted for Conservatives or Liberals, and there was no revolution. (There were very few working-class M.P.s at first, though.) The biggest change was that after 1832 the House of Commons was more important than the House of Lords. The party that won most seats in the Commons formed the government. So after the Reform Acts, the people chose their government.

Walter Robson: Britain 1750 – 1900; Oxford University Press, 1993/2002, page 42 f.