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.” There is certainly no mystery about what happened in
1832. After a stormy period of fourtee