A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

696 Ch. 18 • The Dominant Powers in the Age of Liberalism

that the minimum countryside tax requirement be further lowered. Under
Conservative auspices, the Reform Bill of 1867 passed, like that of 1832.
This doubled the ranks of voters but still left Britain short of universal male

suffrage.

In France at the same time, every adult male could vote during the Sec­

ond Empire, to be sure. But there Emperor Napoleon III cynically manipu­

lated universal male suffrage by presenting government-sponsored

candidates and utilizing that old Bonapartist tool, the plebiscite. The Ger­

man Empire, too, had universal male suffrage, but the Reichstag (assem­

bly) had little real authority. In Russia, there were no national elected

bodies at all, and local assemblies (zemstvos) initiated in 1864 were elected

by local electoral colleges but were dependent upon officials named by the

tsar. In Italy, only a small percentage of adult males were eligible to vote,

by virtue of their ownership of property. The reformed electoral system in

Britain not only enfranchised many more voters, but gave them more influ­

ence, because the House of Commons exercised great authority in Britain's

constitutional monarchy. Here, too, Britain seemed to lead the way in the

gradual emergence of democratic politics.

Disraeli’s Conservatives, however, failed to woo many of the new voters.

The Liberals won a large majority in Parliament, boosted by support from

workers who now could vote. The major goal of the Chartist campaign more

than two decades earlier had been reached.

Another act of reform in 1884 added 2 million more voters to the rolls

by enfranchising agricultural laborers. With women still excluded from the

vote, the only adult males who could not vote were those without a fixed

residence, sons living at home with their parents and not paying rent, and

domestic servants. The Redistribution Act of 1885 disenfranchised some

underpopulated districts while increasing representation of many urban

areas. However, the establishment of single-member constituencies com­

pensated Conservatives, balancing potential Liberal gains in urban areas.

Other Victorian Reforms

The Victorian consensus rested upon a strong belief that the “invisible

hand” of the economy would generate economic growth. Many Victorians

had believed the Poor Law of 1834 was self-defeating because it provided

minimal resources to the poor for which they had not worked. But increas­

ingly aware of the devastating poverty of millions of workers, most middle­

class Victorians by mid-century had changed their minds about the role of

government in society. Edwin Chadwick (1800—1890), a journalist and

associate of Jeremy Bentham, had drafted the Poor Law. His Report on the

Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population of Great Britain (1842)

served as an impassioned plea for government action after cholera had rav­

aged poor urban neighborhoods. Largely thanks to Chadwick’s efforts, Par­

liament passed laws facilitating the inspection of rooming houses, where