Parliamentary Reform
Demand for parliamentary reform increased by 1864 with agitation from John Bright and the Reform League. The Liberal prime minister Earl Russell introduced a modest bill which was defeated by both Tories and reform Liberals, forcing the government to resign. A Conservative minority government led by the Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli took office and introduced the Reform Act 1867 which almost doubled the electorate, giving the vote even to working men.
Read more about this topic: Radicals (UK)
Famous quotes containing the word reform:
“When I go into a museum and see the mummies wrapped in their linen bandages, I see that the lives of men began to need reform as long ago as when they walked the earth. I come out into the streets, and meet men who declare that the time is near at hand for the redemption of the race. But as men lived in Thebes, so do they live in Dunstable today.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)