United Kingdom general election, 1832

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The 1832 UK general election, the first after the Reform Act, saw the Whigs win a large majority, with the Tories winning less than 30% of the vote.

Contents 1 Results 2 Parties and Leaders at the General Election 3 Dates of Election 4 Summary of the Constituencies 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Results

UK General Election 1832
Party		Candidates	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net Gain/Loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/-
	Whig	636	441				67.02	67.0	554,719
	Tory	350	175				26.60	29.2	241,284
	Irish Repeal	51	42				6.38	3.8	31,773

Total votes cast: 827,776

	Party	Candidates	Unopposed	Seats
	Whig	636	109	441
	Tory	350	66	175
	Repeal Association	51	14	42
	Total	1,037	189	658

[edit] Parties and Leaders at the General Election

The Earl Grey had been Prime Minister since 22 November 1830. His was the first predominantly Whig administration since the Ministry of all the Talents in 1806-1807.

In addition to the Whigs themselves Grey was supported by Radical and other allied politicians. The Whigs and their allies were gradually coming to be referred to as Liberals, but no formal Liberal Party had been established at the time of this election, so all the politicians supporting the ministry are referred to as Whig in the above results.

The government Leader of the House of Commons since 1830, was Viscount Althorp (the heir of the Earl Spencer), who also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The last Tory Prime Minister, at the time of the 1832 election, was the Duke of Wellington. After leaving government office, Wellington continued to lead the Tory peers and was the overall Leader of the Opposition.

The Tory Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, was Sir Robert Peel, Bt.

John Wilson Croker had used the term conservative in 1830, but the Tories at the time of this general election had not yet become generally known as the Conservative Party.

In Irish politics, Daniel O'Connell was continuing his campaign for repeal of the Act of Union. He had founded the Irish Repeal Association and it presented candidates independent of the two principal parties.

[edit] Dates of Election

Following the passage of the Reform Act 1832 and related legislation to reform the electoral system and redistribute constituencies, the tenth United Kingdom Parliament was dissolved on 3 December 1832. The new Parliament was summoned to meet on 29 January 1833, for a maximum seven year term from that date. The maximum term could be and normally was curtailed, by the monarch dissolving the Parliament, before its term expired.

At this period there was not one election day. After receiving a writ (a royal command) for the election to be held, the local returning officer fixed the election timetable for the particular constituency or constituencies he was concerned with. Polling in seats with contested elections could continue for many days.

The general election took place between December 1832 and January 1833. The first nomination was on 8 December, with the first contest on 10 December and the last contest on 8 January 1833. It was usual for polling in the University constituencies and in Orkney and Shetland to take place about a week after other seats. Disregarding contests in the Universities and Orkney and Shetland, the last poll was on 1 January 1833.

[edit] Summary of the Constituencies

For the distribution of constituencies in the Unreformed House of Commons, before this general election, see the United Kingdom general election, 1831. Apart from the disenfranchisement of Grampound for corruption in 1821 and the transfer of its two seats as additional members for Yorkshire from 1826, there had been no change in the constituencies of England since the 1670s. In some cases the county and borough seats had remained unaltered since the thirteenth century. Welsh constituencies had been unchanged since the sixteenth century. Those in Scotland had remained the same since 1708 and in Ireland since 1801.

In 1832 politicians were facing an unfamiliar electoral map, as well as an electorate including those qualified under a new uniform householder franchise in the boroughs. However the reform legislation had not removed all the anomalies in the electoral system.

Table of Largest and Smallest Electorates 1832, by country, type and number of seats

Country	Type	Seats	Largest Constituency	Largest Electorate	Smallest Constituency	Smallest Electorate
England	Borough	1	Salford	1,497	Reigate	153
		2	Westminster	11,576	Thetford	146
		4	City of London	18,584	...	...
	County	1	Isle of Wight	1,167	...	...
		2	West Riding of Yorkshire	18,056	Rutland	1,296
		3	Cambridgeshire	6,435	Oxfordshire	4,721
	University	2	Oxford University	2,496	Cambridge University	2,319
Wales	Borough	1	Flint Boroughs	1,359	Brecon	242
	County	1	Pembrokeshire	3,700	Merionethshire	580
		2	Carmarthenshire	3,887	Denbighshire	3,401
Scotland	Burgh	1	Aberdeen	2,024	Wigtown Burghs	316
		2	Glasgow	6,989	Edinburgh	6,048
	County	1	Perthshire	3,180	Sutherland	84
Ireland	Borough	1	Carrickfergus	1,024	Lisburn	91
		2	Dublin	7,008	Waterford	1,241
	County	2	County Cork	3,835	County Kildare	1,112
	University	2	Dublin University	2,073	...	...

Key to categories in the following tables: BC - Borough/Burgh constituencies, CC - County constituencies, UC - University constituencies, Total C - Total constituencies, BMP - Borough/Burgh Members of Parliament, CMP - County Members of Parliament, UMP - University Members of Parliament.

Monmouthshire (1 County constituency with 2 MPs and one single member Borough constituency) is included in Wales in these tables. Sources for this period may include the county in England.

Table 1: Constituencies and MPs, by type and country

Country	BC	CC	UC	Total C	BMP	CMP	UMP	Total MPs
England	186	68	2	256	322	142	4	468
Wales	15	13	0	28	15	17	0	32
Scotland	21	30	0	51	23	30	0	53
Ireland	33	32	1	66	39	64	2	105
Total	255	143	3	401	399	253	6	658

Table 2: Number of seats per constituency, by type and country

Country	BCx1	BCx2	BCx4	CCx1	CCx2	CCx3	UCx2	Total C
England	52	133	1	1	60	7	2	256
Wales	15	0	0	9	4	0	0	28
Scotland	19	2	0	30	0	0	0	51
Ireland	27	6	0	0	32	0	1	66
Total	113	141	1	40	96	7	3	401

[edit] See also

• United Kingdom general elections

[edit] References

• F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
• British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher (Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2000)
• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland 1801-1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
• Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results

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