ABSTRACT
The Reform Act of 1867 was highly controversial at the time and has remained so ever since. However we look at the political history of nineteenth-century Britain, its importance in signposting and bringing about changes of direction, and in bringing new forces into play, is second only to that of its illustrious precursor of 1832. When we remember that the introduction of the secret ballot in 1872 followed hard on its heels, the mid-Victorian changes in the electoral system can be made to look potentially revolutionary; and we shall see that that is how many contemporaries saw them.
