The 1865 United Kingdom general election saw the Liberals, led by

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...

, increase their large majority over the

Earl of Derby Earl of Derby ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the en ...

's Conservatives to 80. The Whig Party changed its name to the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

between the previous election and this one. Palmerston died in October the same year and was succeeded by

Lord John Russell John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and a ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

. Despite the Liberal majority, the party was divided by the issue of further parliamentary reform, and Russell resigned after being defeated in a vote in the House of Commons in 1866, leading to minority Conservative governments under Derby and then Benjamin Disraeli. This was the last United Kingdom general election until

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

where a party increased its majority after having been returned to office at the previous election with a reduced majority.

Corruption

The 1865 general election was regarded by contemporaries as being a generally dull contest nationally, which exaggerated the degree of corruption within individual constituencies. In his PhD thesis, Cornelius O'Leary described ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' as having reported "the testimony is unanimous that in the General Election of 1865 there was more profuse and corrupt expenditure than was ever known before". As a result of allegations of corruption, 50

election petition An election petition refers to the procedure for challenging the result of a Parliamentary election. Outcomes When a petition is lodged against an election return, there are 4 possible outcomes: # The election is declared void. The result is q ...

s were lodged, of which 35 were pressed to a trial; 13 ended with the elected MP being unseated. In four cases a Royal Commission had to be appointed because of widespread corrupt practices in the constituency. As a result, when he became Prime Minister in 1867, Benjamin Disraeli announced that he would introduce a new method for

trials, which were then determined by a committee of the House of Commons, resulting in the

Parliamentary Elections Act 1868 The Parliamentary Elections Act 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 125), sometimes known as the Election Petitions and Corrupt Practices at Elections Act or simply the Corrupt Practices Act 1868, is an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament, since repealed. The ...

, whereby two Judges of the

Court of Common Pleas A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...

, Exchequer of Pleas or Queen's Bench would be designated to try election petitions with full judicial salaries.

Constituencies

Many new constituencies were used for this election: * Northern West Riding of Yorkshire * Southern West Riding of Yorkshire

Results

, - class="sortbottom" style="font-weight: bold; text-align: right; background: #f2f2f2;" ! colspan="2" style="padding-left: 1.5em; text-align: left;" , Total , , 658 , , , +4 , 100 , 100 , 854,856 ,

Regional results

Great Britain

=England

=Scotland

=Wales

Ireland

Universities

Source:

References

Sources and further reading

* * * * * * * * Roberts, Matthew. "Election Cartoons and Political Communication In Victorian England" ''Cultural & Social History'' (2013) 10#3 pp 369–395, covers 1860 to 1890.

External links

Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results
{{United Kingdom elections 1865 elections in the United Kingdom General election 1865 July 1865 events