GENERAL ELECTION.
WILLIAM IV. 1832-1833
After parliament was prorogued, the great objects of public attention were the registration of the new constituency under the reform bill, and other preparations for a general election, which was to follow as soon as the registration was completed. The registration, which was conducted very quietly, having been completed, parliament, which had been prorogued by commission on the 16th of October, was dissolved on the 3rd of December, and the first general election under the reform act took place. The writs were made returnable on the 29th of January, 1833. As regards the machinery of the act, it appeared to work more smoothly than had been anticipated. Generally speaking, in the most populous places, the polling was concluded within the two days allowed by the act. Less time and opportunity were allowed for bribery, and the disturbances which used to arise from drunkenness and profligacy in a great measure ceased. As regards the candidates which the machinery of the act produced, there was a great dislocation of old connexions and previous interests. There were three parties in the field: ministerial candidates; Tories, now called Conservatives; and the Radicals, who have been aptly termed “the apostles of pledges.” The elections were generally in favour of the ministerial candidates, or at least of candidates who professed the same general views, and declared their adherence to a reforming ministry. This was natural, for in almost all the boroughs success depended on the newly created electors, who could scarcely refuse their votes to that party by whose means they had procured the right of voting. The Whigs were most successful in Scotland: out of fifty-three representatives elected in that portion of the empire, not more than twelve were Conservatives; nor could half that number be termed “apostles of pledges.” In Ireland, however, the Whigs were not so successful. O’Connell had denounced the ministers, even while the reform bill was in progress, as acting with insult and injustice towards Ireland in the measure of change meted out to her; and the refusal to abolish the Protestant established church in Ireland had converted him and his adherents into declared enemies. All their energies, therefore, were employed to return members who would either drive ministers from the helm, or drive them to sacrifice the church, and repeal the union. The consequence of his agitation was, that, while Mr. O’Connell was himself elected for Dublin, he brought over with him when parliament met some half-dozen of his own immediate relations, besides various demagogical dependents, as the representatives of Ireland. O’Connell’s manners and language on this occasion were violent in the extreme. In a letter “To the Reformers of Great Britain,” he even ventured to put forth articles of impeachment against the ministers, and he went so far as to offer to coalesce with the Orangemen in order to defeat them. The result of his agitation was that, by his exertions and influence, coupled with that of the minor demagogues of Ireland, the number of Radicals, or “Repealers” was greatly increased.