1865 United Kingdom general election

none August 2024 May 2014 1865 United Kingdom general election United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland parliamentary no 1859 United Kingdom general election 1859 outgoing members 1868 United Kingdom general election 1868 854,856 All 658 seats in the House of Commons 330 elected members 1865 7 11 1865 7 24 yes 160x160px Viscount Palmerston 12 June 1859 Liberal Party (UK) Tiverton 356 seats, 65.8% 369speaker 13 508,821 59.5% 6.3 pp 160x160px Earl of Derby July 1846 Conservative Party (UK) House of Lords 298 seats, 34.2% 289 9 346,035 40.5% 6.3 pp Prime Minister Prime Minister after election Viscount Palmerston Liberal Party (UK) Viscount Palmerston Liberal Party (UK) 1865_UK_general_election_map.svg Colours denote the winning party—as shown in Results File:1865 UK GE Composition diagram.svg Composition of the House of Commons after the election The 1865 United Kingdom general election was held 7 July 1865 to 24 July 1865 to elect 658 members of the House of Commons. It saw the Liberals, led by Lord Palmerston, increase their large majority over the Earl of Derby's Conservatives to 80. Palmerston died in October the same year and was succeeded by Lord John Russell as Prime Minister.Everett 2006 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. none 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 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".Kelly Hamlyn 2013 93 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.O'Leary 1962 27–28, 39 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.O'Leary 1962 27–28, 39 Constituencies Many new constituencies were used for this election: Northern West Riding of Yorkshire Southern West Riding of Yorkshire Results List of MPs elected in the 1865 United Kingdom general election center|300px UK General Election 1865 Liberal Party (UK) 516 369speaker The seat and vote count figures for the Liberals given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons +13 508,821 59.52 56.08 −6.2 yes 1,379 Conservative Party (UK) 406 289 −9 346,035 40.48 43.92 +6.2 1,197 |- 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 | |} Voting summary Popular vote #ddd 600px 380px Liberal Liberal Party (UK) 59.52 Conservative Conservative Party (UK) 40.48 Seats summary Parliamentary seats #ddd 600px 380px Liberal Liberal Party (UK) 56.08 Conservative Conservative Party (UK) 43.92 Regional results Great Britain Party Candidates Unopposed Seats Seats change Votes % % change Liberal Party (UK) 433 133 311 5 457,289 60.0 Conservative Party (UK) 347 115 244 1 304,538 40.0 Total 780 248 555 761,827 100 England Party Candidates Unopposed Seats Seats change Votes % % change Liberal Party (UK) 359 88 251 406,978 59.0 Conservative Party (UK) 308 94 213 4 291,238 41.0 Total 667 182 464 4 698,216 100 Scotland Party Candidates Unopposed Seats Seats change Votes % % change Liberal Party (UK) 51 30 42 2 43,480 85.4 Conservative Party (UK) 17 7 11 2 4,305 14.6 Total 68 37 53 47,785 100 Wales Party Candidates Unopposed Seats Seats change Votes % % change Liberal Party (UK) 21 15 18 3 4,565 74.0 Conservative Party (UK) 16 12 14 3 1,600 26.0 Total 37 27 32 6,165 100 Ireland United Kingdom general election, 1865 (Ireland) Party Candidates Unopposed Seats Seats change Votes % % change Liberal Party (UK) 83 28 58 8 51,532 55.6 Irish Conservative Party 59 27 45 8 41,497 44.4 Total 142 55 103 93,029 100 Universities Party Candidates Unopposed Seats Seats change Votes % % change Conservative Party (UK) 6 2 6 7,395 76.5 Liberal Party (UK) 2 0 0 2,266 23.5 Total 8 2 6 9,661 100 Source: Rallings Thrasher 2012 8–9 See also List of MPs elected in the 1865 United Kingdom general election 1865 United Kingdom general election in Ireland Notes References Sources and further reading F. W. S. Craig F. W. S. Craig British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987 1989 Dartmouth Gower 0900178302 Crewe Ivor Ivor Crewe New Labour's Hegemony: Extension or Erosion? Bartle John King Anthony Britain at the Polls 2005 Washington, D.C. CQ Press 2006 204 1865 The People's Chronology Jason M. Everett Thomson Gale 2006 12 May 2007 http://history.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1865/political-events https://archive.today/20070806024249/http://www.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1865/political-events 6 August 2007 dead The Law and Conduct of MPs Richard Kelly Matthew Hamlyn Parliament and the Law https://books.google.com/books?id=GZTbBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 Alexander Horne Gavin Drewry Dawn Oliver Bloomsbury Publishing 2013 978-1-7822-5258-0 The Elimination of Corrupt Practices in British Elections 1868–1911 O'Leary Cornelius Cornelius O'Leary Oxford University Press Oxford 1962 British Electoral Facts 1832–1999 Colin Rallings Colin Rallings Michael Thrasher Michael Thrasher Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2000 Rallings Colin Thrasher Michael 2012 British Electoral Facts 1832–2012 London Biteback 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 Category:1865 elections in the United Kingdom General election 1865 Category:July 1865 in the United Kingdom Category:Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby Category:Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston