Was Britain A Democracy By The End Of The Nineteenth Century?

Whether Britain was a true democracy by the end of the nineteenth century is hard to determine, as the definition of democracy is; 'A system of government by the whole population'. There were however many actions during the course of the century that lead to the establishment of a fairer and less corrupt system of government and to a great extent the disestablishment of the rigid class systems that plagued the working classes within Britain for centuries. The first of the steps toward a more democratic governance of the United Kingdom came in 1829, with the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829.

The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 was passed on the 24th March of that year and received royal assent on the 13th April . The main body of the act set forth that those of the Roman Catholic persuasion would be permitted to take up a seat within the House of Commons. This Law was proposed after the by-election for Clare, in which catholic Daniel O'Connell had won, but was prohibited from taking his seat in Westminster. The Roman Catholic Relief Act was spearheaded by the then Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel (who for all his career opposed emancipation, and in 1815 challenged O'Connell to duel) .The Act received widespread opposition from the House of Lords and even the King, leading Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley the 1st Duke of Wellington to threaten resignation if the king did not give royal assent, it is often thought that the Duke of Wellington took such a stance on the Act due to his being born in Ireland and in 1807 was Chief Secretary for Ireland under the Lord Lieutenant the Duke of Richmond, so unlike most in Westminster he was familiar with the problems being faced by the Catholics in Ireland .

The Roman Catholic Relief Act had another effect, as well as giving the Houses of Parliament a degree of multi denominationalism, it served to open the floodgates to reformist legislation. The key of which, and what some scholars claim to be a key part of the British constitution, is the Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the Reform Act 1832 or the Great Reform Act). According to the acts preamble the act was designed to:

'.take effectual Measures for correcting divers Abuses that have long prevailed in the Choice of Members to serve in the Commons House of Parliament'

The act initially set out to reduce the number of rotten boroughs represented in parliament and distribute power to larger centres of population within Britain. The final provisions of the act disfranchised 143 borough seats in England and Wales and created 135 new seats in parliament (an extra four of which were from Wales). The act also set out new provisions for who was eligible to vote; these included land holders in copyhold of £10 or more, as well as long term leaseholders of 60 years or more living on land worth more than £10 and short term leaseholders on land worth £50 or more, as well as free tenants paying more than £50 annually in rent. thuse All of these people were given the right to vote . Due to these extra reforms approximatly 1 in 6 now had the right to vote.

Arguably the most important thing to come from the act was voter registration (a similar system can still be seen in effect today) thus enabling local party associations to begin educating electors on their parties platforms and manifestos, therefore inspiring the grassroots political movement, giving the appearance of being part of the national political movement.

The Representation of the People Act 1832, as has been stated had many positive effects but due to it being mainly in favour of the middle classes as opposed to the working classes (as voters were meant to own property of £10 or more) this split in opinion eventually lead to the chartist movement (Chartism).

Chartism was a working class political movement between 1838 and 1848 it takes its name from the people's charter of 1838 which called for: universal male suffrage, a secret ballot, the abolition of property qualifications for members of parliament, a wage for members of parliament, constituencies of equal sizes and annual elections to parliament.

This chartist movement was punctuated by a series of protests such as in Newport in 1839 and Sheffield and East London in early 1840. . The problem with Chartism was poorly organised and also that it seemed flourished during tough economic times, but then seemed to fade away during times of prosperity . For instance during the 1839 Newport uprising this was meant to herald a national uprising, but due to the poor coordination and timing of the John Frosts march on the Newport, Chartism was put on the back foot until in 1842.

During 1842 Chartism seemed to be reenergised as in May of the that year a petition calling for the introduction the people's charter into law, containing over three million signatures, was rejected by parliament. Over the course of the year many strikes were taking place especially in areas such as Lancashire, Cheshire, the Midlands, Yorkshire and Strathclyde. The principal demands of which were the increase of wages and the introduction of the peoples charter into law. However the strikes were quickly ended by the military. The chartist leaders were arrested but acquitted at trial, with one exception.

Again the works of the chartists seemed to quieten down until the petition of 1848 in which another petition was handed to parliament in light of the revolutions that where plaguing Europe during the "springtime of the people" and the chartists wanted to be seen as the peaceable alternative to revolution, however upon inspection of the document it was found that many of the signatures were forged or gave fake names such as Queen Victoria and Mr Punch . This served to collapse the interest in the chartist movement and workers began migrating towards the trade union movement. Although the chartist movement faded by 1848 as a legacy it led to the Corrupt Practices Act 1854 and to a split in both the Whig party and the Tories that would eventually form the Liberal part by 1859. As well as this under Benjamin Disraeli's government, the Representation of the People Act 1832 was amended by the Representation of the People Act 1867 (also known as the Second Reform Act, or the Reform Act 1867) the chartist movements aim of secret ballots also came into effect 1872 with the Ballot Act 1872.

Under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act 1867 the final proposals were as follows: a vote for all who paid rates in person, and extra votes for graduates, professionals and those with over £50 savings. The disenfranchisment of 11 bouroughs, halving the representation of 35 constituencies, and enfranchising 15 constituencies with more representation, the university of london was given its own Member of Parliament, parliament could continue sitting during the demise of the crown (death of a reigning monarch) and cabinet members no longer had seek reelection before changing their ministerial portfolio.

The effect of the Representation of the People Act 1867 was that it effectivley gave the working classes the vote and that the landed gentry could no longer assure their position in parliament through bribery and or through granting favours. However to vote an elector had to be registered and the electoral register could easily be maniuplated by party organisers .

As previously stated the other of the chartists demands to eventually be enacted was the Ballot Act 1872. This act came into practise as the current economic situation left a lot of voters open to bribery, intimidation or balckmail, so with the introduction of the act the landlord classes were pushed out of power during the 1880 general election . However it wasn't until the introduction of the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act 1883 that campaign expenditure was to be limited and published and bribery stampped out . This was then strengthened by the Parliamentary Elections Corrupt Practices Act 1885 which set out that all employers must give paid time off to all workers in order to vote and must be available to all voters not just party supporters.

In 1884 the government passed the Representation of the People Act 1884 (the third reform act) this act set forth that the same voting rights to those in towns or cities should be held by those in the countryside, this along with the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 gave more representation to in parliament to urban areas and widend suffrage so that approximatly 60% of men had the right to vote.

So by the end of the nineteenth century roughly sixty percent of all men within the United Kingdom of Great Britain had the right to vote, but the selection of representatives was still left to the local branches of the parties, not to the general public, so it was still a question of selecting the best from 2 or 3 or 4 candidates, and whilst this could be done in secret, free from bribery, blackmail or intimidation it could still hardly be described as democratic. As the true definition of democracy is governance by universal selection, at this time only a majority perentage of the male population had a selection of candidates from the parties with the most money to promote themselves. So this could hardly be described as democratic, because it wasn't until 1918 that all men could vote, and 1919 before universal suffrage to the adult populace of the United Kingdom.

So therefore it is safe to say that at the end of the long nineteenth century that Britain was not a democracy, but it taken its first strides towards doing so, especially in the face of wars, riots and revolutions, but even so it still took almost a century to go from catholic emancipation to votes for all men and women alike.

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