ABSTRACT
The right to vote differed between the inhabitants of counties and boroughs; in a county only males possessing freehold property worth more than 40s a year, about one person in fifty, were enfranchized. The right to vote in a borough varied from place to place; in many it was restricted to members of the corporation, who were expected to support a nominee of the Crown or of some wealthy individual who regarded the Parliamentary seat as part of his possessions. When the Whigs came into power in 1830 Lord Grey and his followers had the opportunity to put into practice their theories to reform. In 1852 Lord John Russell made an abortive attempt to reopen the subject of reform. The explosion of the revolution in France in 1789 increased public mistrust of reform which was enhanced by the overthrow of the French legislative assembly in 1792 and its replacement by the terrible national convention.
