Historical and Commemorative
Medals
Collection of Benjamin Weiss
PASSING OF THE REFORM BILL WYON, Benjamin: England, 1832, Bronze, 51 mm The 1830s were a politically and socially tense period of
British history. The working class and the middle class demanded fundamental
changes, including Parliamentary Reform. The three Reform Acts, of 1832,
1867, and 1884, all extended voting rights to previously disenfranchised
citizens. In 1832 Lord Grey and Henry Brougham met the king and asked him to
create a large number of Wigg peers in order to get the Reform Bill passed
in the House of Lords.This led to the passage of the first Reform act. This
act was the most controversial as it reapportioned representation in
Parliament in a way fairer to the cities of the industrial north, which had
experienced tremendous growth. The act not only re-apportioned
representation in Parliament, thus making that body more accurately
represent the citizens of the country, but also gave the power of voting to
those lower in the social and economic scale. For many conservatives, this
effect of the bill, which allowed the middle classes to share power with the
upper classes, was revolutionary in its import. Some historians argue that
this transference of power achieved in England what the French Revolution
achieved eventually in France. The inscription on the obverse refers to Lord Grey, Henry
Brougham, the statesman John Charles Spencer (Viscount Althrop), and Lord
John Russell, all of whom were instrumental in the passage of this Act.
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