Representation of the People Act 1884

Common card · No. 490151

The Representation of the People Act 1884 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 3), also known informally as the Third Reform Act, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed under the premiership of William Gladstone. Together with the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (c. 23) of the following year, the act which further extended the suffrage in the UK after the Derby government's Reform Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 102). Taken together, these measures extended the same voting qualifications as existed in the towns to the countryside, more than doubling the electorate in the counties, and essentially established the modern one member constituency as the normal pattern for parliamentary representation. The bill was introduced by Gladstone on 28 February 1884. The Conservative-dominated House of Lords rejected the bill on 17 July but then passed it. It gained royal assent on 6 December of that year. The act extended the 1867 concessions from the boroughs to the countryside. All men paying an annual...

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