The Reform Bill of 1867 and the British Party System

Abstract

The Reform Bill of 1867 is generally considered as second step in long process which peacefully transformed British government into a functioning democracy. The orderly extension of suffrage, bringing new classes within pale of constitution without destroying old forms, created a deep seated satisfaction in Great Britain and universal admiration abroad. The nature of these changes made them seem both right and inevitable, and one scholar, a former president of American Historical Association, even went so far as to deify tendency toward democracy into a law of history.' Statesmen of both parties, like Macaulay, heard the voice of great events . . . proclaiming . . . Reform that you may preserve . . . Renew youth of state, 2 and not only met but even anticipated popular demand for representation. In consequence, Bill of 1867 has taken its place with Reforms of 1832 and 1884-5 as most striking example of that peculiarly British method of progress typical of: