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Hello here's a quotation from a 19th century novel.

We must get the suffrage.

We must get votes that we may send the men to Parliament who will do our work for us.

And we must have the country divided so that the little kings of the counties can't do as they like

but must be shaken up in one bag with us.

Sir Declars a working-class reformist in George Elliot's novel Felix Holt The Radical.

It's set in 1832 the year of what became called

The Great Reform Act which extended the vote and gave industrial cities such

as Manchester and Birmingham political representation for the first time.

The Act is often described as a landmark moment in British political history.

But to what extent was Britain's political system transformed by the Great Reform Act, what were the causes of reform and

was the act designed to encourage democracy in Britain or to head it off?

With me to discuss the Great Reform Act at Catherine Hall, Professor of

...