ing for an electoral reform of a
more thoroughgoing character than any persons save the most
uncompromising of the radicals had ever asked or desired. This
Representation of the People Act modified but slightly the
distribution of parliamentary seats. The total number of seats
remained unchanged, as did Ireland's quota of 105; Scotland's
apportionment was increased from 54 to 60, while that of England and
Wales was decreased from 499 to 493; and in the course of the
re-allotment that was made eleven boroughs lost the right of
representation and thirty-five others were reduced from two members to
one. The fifty-two seats thus vacated were utilized to enfranchise
twelve new borough and three university constituencies and to increase
the representation of a number of the more populous towns and
counties.

[Footnote 118: By law of 1710 it had been required
that county members should possess landed property
worth L600, and borough members worth L300, a year.
These qualifications were very commonly evaded, but
they were not abolished until 1858.]

The most important provisions of the Act were, however, those relating
to the franchise. In England and Wales the county franchise was
guaranteed to men whose freehold was of the value of forty shillings a
year, to copyholders and leaseholders of the annual value of L5, and
to householders whose rent amounted to not less than L12 a year. (p. 084)
The twelve pound occupation franchise was new,[119] and the
qualification for copyholders and leaseholders was reduced from L10 to
L5; otherwise the county franchise was unchanged. The borough
franchise was modified profoundly. Heretofore persons were qualified
to vote as householders only in the event that their house was worth
as much as L10 a year. Now the right was conferred upon every man who
occupied, as owner or as tenant, for twelve months, a dwelling-house,
or any portion thereof utilized as a separate dwelling, without regard
to its value. Another newly established franchise admitted to the
voting privilege all lodgers occupying for as much as a year rooms of
the clear value, unfurnished, of L10 a year. The effect of these
provisions was to enfranchise the urban working population, even as
the act of 1832 had enfranchised principally the urban middle class.
So broad, indeed, did the urban franchise at this point become that
little r