1865 United Kingdom general election

1865 United Kingdom general election
← outgoing members elected members →
All 658 seats in the House of Commons; 330 seats needed for a majority
	Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
	Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election; Viscount Palmerston; Liberal	Prime Minister after election ; Viscount Palmerston; Liberal

The 1865 United Kingdom general election saw the Liberals, led by Lord Palmerston, increase their large majority over the Earl of Derby's Conservatives to 80. The Whig Party changed its name to the Liberal Party between the previous election and this one.

Palmerston died in October the same year and was succeeded by Lord John Russell as Prime Minister.^[1] 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 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 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".^[2] As a result of allegations of corruption, 50 election petitions 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.^[3]

As a result, when he became Prime Minister in 1867, Benjamin Disraeli announced that he would introduce a new method for election petition trials, which were then determined by a committee of the House of Commons, resulting in the Parliamentary Elections Act 1868, whereby two Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, Exchequer of Pleas or Queen's Bench would be designated to try election petitions with full judicial salaries.^[3]

Constituencies

Many new constituencies were used for this election:

Results

UK General Election 1865

Party		Candidates						Votes
Party		Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Liberal	516	369^[a]			+13	56.08	59.52	508,821	−6.2
	Conservative	406	289			−9	43.92	40.48	346,035	+6.2
Total			658			+4	100	100	854,856

Voting summary

Popular vote

Liberal			59.52%
Conservative			40.48%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Liberal			56.08%
Conservative			43.92%

Regional results

Great Britain

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%
	Liberal	433	133	311	5	457,289	60.0
	Conservative	347	115	244	1	304,538	40.0
Total		780	248	555		761,827	100

England

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%
	Liberal	359	88	251		406,978	59.0
	Conservative	308	94	213	4	291,238	41.0
Total		667	182	464	4	698,216	100

Scotland

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%
	Liberal	51	30	42	2	43,480	85.4
	Conservative	17	7	11	2	4,305	14.6
Total		68	37	53		47,785	100

Wales

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%
	Liberal	21	15	18	3	4,565	74.0
	Conservative	16	12	14	3	1,600	26.0
Total		37	27	32		6,165	100

Ireland

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%
	Liberal	83	28	58	8	51,532	55.6
	Irish Conservative	59	27	45	8	41,497	44.4
Total		142	55	103		93,029	100

Universities

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Votes	%
	Conservative	6	2	6	7,395	76.5
	Liberal	2	0	0	2,266	23.5
Total		8	2	6	9,661	100

Source: Rallings & Thrasher 2012, pp. 8–9

Notes

^ ^a ^b The seat and vote count figures for the Liberals given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons

References

^ Everett 2006.
^ Kelly & Hamlyn 2013, p. 93.
^ ^a ^b O'Leary 1962, pp. 27–28, 39.

Sources and further reading

Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
Crewe, Ivor (2006), "New Labour's Hegemony: Extension or Erosion?", in Bartle, John; King, Anthony (eds.), Britain at the Polls 2005, Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, p. 204
Everett, Jason M., ed. (2006), "1865", The People's Chronology, Thomson Gale, archived from the original on 6 August 2007, retrieved 12 May 2007
Kelly, Richard; Hamlyn, Matthew (2013), "The Law and Conduct of MPs", in Horne, Alexander; Drewry, Gavin; Oliver, Dawn (eds.), Parliament and the Law, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 978-1-7822-5258-0
O'Leary, Cornelius (1962), The Elimination of Corrupt Practices in British Elections 1868–1911, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael, eds. (2000), British Electoral Facts 1832–1999, Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael, eds. (2012), British Electoral Facts 1832–2012, London: Biteback, ISBN 978-1-84954-134-3
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

[speaker-1] The seat and vote count figures for the Liberals given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons

[FOOTNOTEEverett2006-2] Everett 2006.

[FOOTNOTEKellyHamlyn201393-3] Kelly & Hamlyn 2013, p. 93.

[FOOTNOTEO'Leary196227–28,_39-4] O'Leary 1962, pp. 27–28, 39.

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