Commons 1820-1832

The 1820 Parliament

About forty years ago Austin Mitchell analysed voting behaviour in the 1820 Parliament as part of his study of the Whig party in opposition from 1815 to 1830. He conceded that his ‘method of analysis … does not accord with vague contemporary classifications’, but argued that it ‘does accord with voting habits and is reasonably comprehensive’. He devised the categories of ‘government’, ‘government fringe’, ‘opposition’, ‘opposition fringe’ and ‘waverers’, into which the 683 Members who voted in the divisions examined were placed. The results were:

The Fabric of the HouseIn addition to the works cited in the footnotes, this chapter draws on C. Wilkinson, 'The Practice and Procedure of the House of Commons c.1784-1832' (Aberystwyth Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1998).

Age, Family and Parliamentary Experience

The Election of 1820

Ireland accounted for 100 of the 658 seats at Westminster during this period, the Members being returned from 66 constituencies: 32 counties, 33 boroughs (two of which, Cork and Dublin, returned two Members) and one university (Trinity College, Dublin).

The Counties

Prior to the implementation of the 1832 Reform Act, Wales returned 24 Members: one for each of its 12 county and 12 borough constituencies, seven of which had out-boroughs. Monmouthshire was historically and dynastically part of Wales, but legally part of England, having been excluded from the judicial and enfranchising provisions made for Wales in the first and second Acts of Union.27 Hen. VIII, c. 26; 34 Hen. VIII, c. 26; 35 Hen. VIII c. 11; P.R. Roberts, ‘The Act of Union in Welsh History’, Trans. Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion (1972-3), pp. 51-52.

In addition to standard and self-explanatory abbreviations, the following abbreviations are used in this volume.

The arrangement of these volumes follows that of the 1790-1820 section of the History of Parliament. There are 383 constituency articles, covering England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, in that order. With the exception of Scotland, they are set out alphabetically by county, and the county constituency articles precede those of the boroughs within the county. The English Cinque Ports are grouped together after Yorkshire. For Scotland, the 14 districts of burghs and Edinburgh are placed together, after the 33 counties.