The Great Reform Act of 1832 Radio 4 podcast - In our time with Melvyn Bragg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20081127.shtml
What was the political structure pre 1832?
- As far as parliament the situation was chaotic. There were two types of seats: borough seats and county seats.
- Counties each returned 2 seats but the size of the counties varied enormously
- With boroughs, there were boroughs with very few inhabitants e.g rotten boroughs like Old Sarum. Yet they were still returning 2 seats. Secondly, Dunwich in east Anglia which had been a large and prosperous settle meant in the middle ages. Now it only has about 20 voters and still returned 2
- Meanwhile hugely expanding areas like Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester with 500,000 inhabitants had no representation. Even though Manchester had about Qualifications for voting were ridiculous:
- Preston = open borough =any adult male present in the constituency at the time of the election could vote
-Who wanted what in terms of reform?
Land owners didn’t want remove and were perfectly happy with the status quo.
Why did reform take so long? They thought that the sy
How important was the influence of the French Revolution?
Why were the Catholics emancipated and what was the impact on the reform crisis?
What was the impact of the reform crisis (1830-32) on the country?
Could a revolution have happened 1830-32?
What different views are there on the reform Act?
