Volume 21, Number 21 & 22 · January 23, 1975
An Ambiguous Act
By John Clive
The Great Reform Act
by Michael Brock
Humanities Press, 411 pp., $6.00 (paper)
Eighteen thirty-two, the year that saw the passage of the Great Reform Act, is one of those dates in English history—1066 and 1688 are others—whose significance has become nothing less than mythical. It is a boon alike to textbook writers and to those who set or take examinations. And the tenpound householder, whom the act enfranchised, resembles the spinning jenny and the water frame in being something that everyone talks about, usually without knowing exactly what or who it was. One student memorably defined him as 'any member of a household weighing more than ten pounds'; but that was surely in jest. More frequent and more serious comments consist of statements such as: 'The Reform Act of 1832 took power away from the aristocracy and gave it to the middle classes'; or 'The Reform Act of 1832 put Britain squarely on the path to democracy.'
Review, 1768 words
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