ABSTRACT
On April 17, 1834, when a relatively united Grey Government appeared to dominate the political scene, Lord Althorp had introduced a Government Poor Law Bill soon to become notorious. On the 2nd it coalesced with the Tories to defeat Grote’s Radical motion for the Ballot, on the 5th Lord John Russell introduced the famous Municipal Reform Bill, and on the 26th Lord Morpeth brought in an Irish Tithe Bill. The English Municipal Reform Bill was based on the Report of a Commission which had been appointed in 1833, after a Select Committee had grasped the magnitude of the investigations required, and the necessity for taking evidence in the towns affected and not at Westminster. Radicals, then, heartily supported the Government’s Bill for abolishing the corrupt old municipal oligarchies and substituting for them elected councils, chosen by all the ratepayers on equal terms and possessed of full police powers and the control of finance and charitable trusts.
