78
ENGLAND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
no alternative was possible, The Whig statesman would not
return to power till he was granted a written promise that, if
the House of Lords persisted in its opposition to Reform, the
king would create new peers in sufficient numbers to swamp
all resistance, "This threat had its effect; to prevent its
being put in force, Wellington and several scores more of
Tory peers solemnly marched out of the House when the
bill was again sent up from the Commons. In their absence
it was allowed to pass by a considerable majority (June
4, 1832).
"The details of the bill demand a word of notice, It dis-
franchised entirely no less than fifty-six ‘“ rotten boroughs,”
The redistri- None of which had more than 2000 inhabitants.
bution of It deprived of one member each thirty small
seat towns which had hitherto owned two representa-
tives. "This gave a total of 143 seats to be disposed of among
the new centres of population. London got ten of them, new
boroughs being created for Marylebone, Greenwich, Lambeth,
Yinsbury, and the Tower Hamlets, "Twenty-two large towns,
such as Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and Newcastle,
received two members each, "L’wenty-one places of secondary
size were allotted one cach. '"lhe more populous counties
were cut up into divisions, to which sixty-five members were
given, Eight new borough members were created in Scotland ;
in Ireland (where the existing arrangements only dated back to
1800) there was hardly any need of change.
At the same time the franchise was made uniform all over:
the United Kingdom ; before 1832 every borough had its own
he new rules, In the towns, the power to vote was given
borough and to every householder occupying a tenement of the
county value of £10 or over. In the counties the terms
franchises. .
granted were less liberal ; to the freeholders, who
possessed the franchise before, there were added as voters
all copyholders and leaseholders holding lands to the annual
value of £10, and tenants-at-will of ‚50 holdings, This
