| Details |
June 7, 1832 |
Reform Bill, now known as the First Reform Act of 1832, receives royal assent: while the Bill had dramatic effects for grossly underrepresented places like Scotland (the number of Scottish people allowed to vote increased from only 4,000 to 65,000 out of 2.5 million people), and although the bill changed voting from an aristocratic privilege to a middle class right, by comtemporary Western standards not much was accomplished in over 50 years of sometimes bloody battle for universal suffrage: because of the Bill, the electorate approximately doubled to about 800,000 voters, but 800,000 people is nowhere near "all" of the people--the population in Great Britain (Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales) was 24 million in an 1831 census, and increasing 1 million a year. |
*Parliamentary Reform |