ABSTRACT
The average Whig Peer or country gentleman hardly considered it safer than did the Tory to release the constituencies from that rigid supervision of the individual voter by the “property” of his neighbourhood which was made possible by the open voting system. Even when Daniel O’Connell and the Irish Radicals came to the discussion of the markedly unsatisfactory Irish Reform Bill after May 25, 1832, their criticism was rather one of detail than of principle. But despite the admitted evils against which Ministerial division plans were directed, there were Whig-Radical and Radical members who felt that they brought dangers of their own. Though the Grey Government was only prevented from making them concessions by fear of a Radical explosion, it realised also that the Tories were making insufficient allowance for the effect of Whig precautions. The nice political weighting of Irish constituencies to prevent any alarming gains by O’Connellite Radicalism did not dispose of the Irish problem.
