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On the English Reform Bill (1831)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Lawrence Dickey
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
H. B. Nisbet
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

The primary intention of the Reform Bill now before the English Parliament is to bring justice and fairness into the way in which the various classes [Klassen] and sections of the populace are allowed to participate in the election of Members of Parliament. This is to be achieved by introducing a greater degree of symmetry in place of the most bizarre and informala irregularity and inequality which prevail at present. It is numbers, localities, and private interests which are to be rearranged; but in fact, the change in question also impinges on the noble internal organs of Great Britain, on the vital principles of its constitution and condition. It is this aspect of the present Bill which merits particular attention, and the aim of this essay will be to bring together those higher points of view which have hitherto come up for discussion in the parliamentary debates. It is not surprising that so many voices were raised in opposition to the Bill in the Lower House, and that it gained its second reading only by the accident of a single vote; for it is precisely those interests of the aristocracy which are powerful even in the Lower House that are to be challenged and reformed. If the Bill were opposed by all those who stand to lose (or whose sponsors stand to lose) their former privileges and influence, it would most decidedly have the majority against it at once.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

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