ABSTRACT
The 1832 Reform Act retained the 658 seats of the unreformed system. The essential conservatism of the Reform Act was underlined by the fact that many 'new' constituencies were merely old ones with enlarged boundaries; whilst many seats went to the counties, thus strengthening the landed interest. Seats given to London still left it badly under-represented after the Reform Act. The Irish Reform Act intensified, rather than reduced, the influence of landlords and priests; while the Scots Reform Act, drafted with blithe disregard for Scottish feudal law, introduced as many anomalies and inconsistencies as it removed. The reformed electoral system, which has been so brilliantly described by Professor Gash, was a mixture of old and new. Violence at elections was taken remarkably lightly until late in the Victorian age. Thus the prudish and the genteel, less common before 1850 than after, feared election time with considerable justification.
