ABSTRACT
Published anonymously by an ex-MP and a Tory, the Scheme for a Reform of Parliament revealed the range of opinion within, as well between, the parties regarding the very complex and highly technical issue of Reform. The variety of different problems commentators saw with the existing electoral system also led to diverse proposals for curing disparate current ills.
In constituencies with more than one MP, voters possessed as many votes as Members for the constituency. Therefore, in constituencies with two MPs, voters had two votes. In those with three MPs, voters possessed three votes. The pamphlet argued that every adult male paying rates and taxes as a resident should be given a single vote, provided they were not receiving alms or charity, that they could sign their name, that they had not been fined or imprisoned in the last five years, and that they were not convicted of drunkenness. The recent history of universal suffrage in France, it argued, shows that a broad ‘popular’ suffrage was not inimical to Conservatism. Further proposals were that all parliamentary candidates must be rate-paying residents in the constituency. ‘Strangers’, candidates coming from outside the constituency, it argued, offered an opportunity for those able to ‘speechify’, but with no knowledge of the community, nor could the community have sufficient knowledge of the candidate. Lastly, it proposed the abolition of the requirement that those accepting ministerial office must face re-election. This was originally a Whig measure of 150 years earlier, passed in order to require the electoral endorsement of ministers appointed by the Crown as a constraint on the prerogative.
While undoubtedly eccentric in some regards as a Conservative contribution to the Reform debate, the pamphlet served to illustrate the complexity, technicality, and diversity of view, even within parties, the issue generated. Moreover, the different problems commentators diagnosed with the electoral system could generate very different remedies.
