Representation of the People Act 1884
Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act to amend the Law relating to the Representation of the People of the United Kingdom. |
---|---|
Citation | 48 & 49 Vict. c. 3 |
Introduced by | William Gladstone |
Territorial extent | United Kingdom |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 6 December 1884 |
Other legislation | |
Repealed by | Representation of the People Act 1918 |
Relates to | Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 |
Status: Repealed |
In the
The bill was introduced by Gladstone on 28 February 1884. It was initially rejected by the House of Lords on 17 July, but passed a second time and gained royal assent on 6 December of that year.[4]
The Act extended the 1867 concessions from the boroughs to the countryside. All men paying an annual rental of £10 and all those holding land valued at £10 now had the vote.[2] This significantly increased the electorate; in the 1880 general election, before the passing of the Act, 3,040,050 voters were registered, while in the 1885 general election, after the passing of the Act, there were 5,708,030 registered voters.[5] The bill was so objectionable to the House of Lords that Gladstone was forced to separate the legislation into two bills,[2] the second being the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, which redistributed constituencies in order to equalise representation within constituencies across the UK.[6]
The 1884 Reform Act did not establish universal suffrage: although the size of the electorate was increased considerably, all women and 40% of men were still without the vote.[7][8] Male suffrage varied throughout the kingdom, too: in England and Wales, two in three adult males had the vote; in Scotland, three in five did; but in Ireland, the figure was only one in two.[8]
Key sections of the Act
Section 2: This extended a uniform household (freeholder and leaseholder) franchise to all
Section 3: Men inhabiting a dwelling-house as an employee, whose employer did not live there, were to be treated for franchise purposes as if they were occupying as tenants.
Section 4: Prohibition of multiplicity of votes. This was not to stop people acquiring multiple votes in different constituencies (plural voting was still permitted), but to restrict sub-division of one property to qualify multiple voters (so-called faggot voters).
Section 5a: A man who was a £10 occupier in a county or borough was to be a voter in that county or borough. This assimilated the previous county occupation franchise and borough occupation franchise into a uniform occupation franchise.
Section 6: Occupation in a borough was not to confer a county franchise.
Effects
As many crofters in the
See also
- Democracy in Europe
- Reform Acts
- Representation of the People Act
- Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918
- Medical Relief Disqualification Removal Act 1885
References
- The Statutes: Second Revised Edition, Vol. XVI 1884–1886, (printed by authority 1900)
- ISBN 978-0-8240-5156-3.
- ^ a b c McKechnie, The reform of the House of Lords p.49
- .
- OCLC 233543817.
- OCLC 20057069.
- Lowell, A. Lawrence (1912). The Government of England. Vol. 1. London: Macmillan. p. 199.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-5303-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-415-35970-2.
- ^ Crowley, D.W. "The Crofters' Party – 1885 to 1892 The first British independent common people's political party" (PDF). Retrieved 24 April 2017.
- ISBN 0-631-12502-7.
External links
Cunningham Glen, W (1885). The Representation of the People Act, 1884, with introduction notes and index. Shaw & Sons.