Background
For many years after the Great Reform Act of 1832, governments had resisted attempts to push through further reform, and in particular in rejecting the claims of the Chartist movement. After 1848, this movement declined rapidly, and elite opinion began to change . It was quite a number of years later that it was thought prudent to introduce further electoral reform. Lord John Russell attempted this in 1860, but the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston was against any further electoral reform. When Palmerston died in 1865, however, the floodgates for reform were opened.
The Union victory in the American Civil War in 1865 emboldened the forces in Britain that demanded more democracy and public input into the political system, to the dismay of the upper class landed gentry who identified more with the Southern planters and feared this might happen. Influential commentators included Walter Bagehot, Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, and Anthony Trollope.
In 1866, Prime Minister Earl Russell (as he became) introduced a Reform Bill. It was a cautious measure, which proposed to enfranchise "respectable" working men, excluding unskilled workers and what was known as the "residuum," that is, seen by MPs as the "feckless and criminal" poor. This was ensured by a £7 householder qualification, which had been calculated to require an income of 26 shillings a week (£765.00 in 2011). There were also two "fancy franchises," originating from measures of 1854, a £10 lodger qualification for the boroughs, and a £50 savings qualification in the counties. Liberals claimed that 'the middle classes, strengthened by the best of the artisans, would still have the preponderance of power'.
When it came to the vote, however, this bill split the Liberal Party: this was partly engineered by Benjamin Disraeli, who incited those threatened by the bill to rise up against it. On one side were the reactionary-conservative Liberals, known as the Adullamites; on the other were pro-reform Liberals who supported the Government. The Adullamites, though, were supported by Tories and the liberal Whigs were supported by radicals and reformists.
The bill was thus defeated and the Liberal government of Russell resigned.
Read more about this topic: Reform Act 1867
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