In London the rabble smashed the windows of Apsley House, the residence of the Duke of Wellington.  At Nottingham the mob fired and destroyed the castle of the Duke of Newcastle because he was opposed to reform.  In Derby a serious riot broke out.  In Bristol matters were still worse.  A mob got possession of the city, and burned the Bishop’s Palace and a number of public buildings.  The mayor was obliged to call for troops to restore order.  Many persons were killed, and four of the ringleaders of the insurrection were hanged.  All over the country shouts were heard, “The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill!”

582.  Passage of the Great Reform Bill, 1832; Results.

In the spring of 1832 the battle began again more fiecely than ever.  Again the House of commons voted the bill, and once again the House of Lords defeated it.

Earl Grey, the Whig Prime Minister (S479), had set his heart on carrying the measure.  In this crisis he appealed to the King for help.  If the Tory Lords would not pass the bill, the King had the power to create a sufficient number of new Whig Lords who would.  William refused to exercise this power.  Thereupon Earl Grey, with his Cabinet (S534), resigned, but in a week the King had to recall them.  Then William, much against his will, gave the following document to his Prime Minister: 

    “The King grants permission to Earl Grey, and to his Chancellor,
    Lord Brougham, to create such a number of Peers as will be
    sufficient to insure the passing of the Reform Bill—­first calling
    up Peers’ eldest sons. 
                                “William R., Windsor, May 17, 1832"[1]

[1] “First calling up Peers’ eldest sons”:  that is, in creating new Lords, the eldest sons of Peers were to have the preference.  William R. (Rex, King):  this is the customary royal signature.  Earl Grey was the leader of that branch of the Whig party known as the “Aristocratic Whigs,” yet to him and his associate Cabinet minsiters the people were indebted for the great extension of the suffrage in 1832.

But there was no occasion to make use of this permission.  As soon as the Lords found that the Cabinet (S534), with Earl Grey at the head, had actually compelled the King to bow to the demands of the people, they withdrew their opposition.  The “Great Charter of 1832” was carried, received the royal signature, and became law.

The passage of this memorable act brought about these beneficent changes: 

   (1) It abolished nearly sixty “rotten boroughs” (S579).
   (2) It gave every householder who paid a rent of ten pounds in any
town a vote, and largely extended the list of county voters as well.
   (3) It granted two representatives to Birmingham, Leeds,
Manchester, and nineteen other large towns, and one representative each to twenty-one other places, all of which had hitherto been unrepresented, besides granting fifteen additional members to the counties.
   (4) It added, in all, half a million voters to the list, mostly men
of the middle class, and it helped to purify the elections from the violence which had disgraced them.[1]