The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 801: MOTIONS FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, ETC.

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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

MOTIONS FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, ETC.

While the peers were thus engaged the commons were considering the subject of parliamentary reform. Mr. Lambton proposed to divide the kingdom into elective districts, extend the franchise to all householders, and limit the duration of parliament to three years. This plan being rejected, Lord John Russell proposed another, which would have extended the right of electing members to populous towns then unrepresented in parliament, and disfranchise every borough convicted hereafter of corruption. The house, however, was not yet prepared to go even thus far, for the motion was rejected by a majority of one hundred and fifty-five. But one decided measure of practical reform was at least effected this session; this was the disfranchisement of the corrupt borough of Grampound, and the transfer of its privileges to the populous county of York.