a) Key milestones in widening of the franchise

• how many types of constituencies were there?

  counties and the boroughs (towns) which varied in size
• what was voting like in the counties?

  right to vote restricted to those who owned property worth at least 40 shillings (£2 in value)
• how did boroughs vote?

  varied according to local rules and traditions - some boroughs allowed all freemen to vote

  others depended on property ownership or payment of some kind of local tax
• what was the distribution of parliamentary seats like?

  hadn't kept pace with economic growth and population movement, so some tiny boroughs retained an historic right to return MPs.
• how were other parliamentary seats distributed?

  wealthy patron effectively nominated the MP. Meanwhile, emerging industrial towns were yet to acquire representation of their own.
• what did Plural voting allow?

  wealthy men, who owned property in more than one constituency, to vote more than once.
• who was excluded from voting?

  women were excluded from voting, although there had been occasional examples of women who owned property in their own right exercising the franchise.
• how many men had voted in the early 19th century?

  This meant that the electorate totalled approximately 400,000 men