Back to the Victorians calendar
OK, it's time for some more reforms; firstly, who could vote. If you remember 1832, there was a reform act which gave a few more men the chance to vote in general elections. In 1867 there was a second act which increased those who could vote from about 800,000 to twice that figure. This act gave the vote to householders and lodgers in cities and boroughs who paid a rent of £10 a year or more and gave the vote to people who owned land and those tenants who had small amounts of their own land. In 1872 the secret ballot was introduced and people no longer had to tell someone who they were voting for.
In 1884 there was yet another act and this time the same voting rights were given to men who lived in the counties. This increased the number of eligible voters to around 5 million. But it still meant 40% of all men could not vote. However, you don't have to be a keen amateur spy to note that women were still not allowed to vote and they were starting to get annoyed by this.
There had not only been voting reform but there had also, over this period, been more laws about working conditions for adults and children. I will just tell you about a few of these.
1872 – all girls, all women and boys under the age of 12 were banned from working in the mines.
1873 - children between the ages of 8 and 10 years could be employed in agriculture only if the parent signed a certificate stating that the child had completed 250 school attendances, and, if the child was over ten, 150 attendances in the preceding 12 months.
1874 - the minimum working age in factories was raised to nine and the working day for women and young people fixed at 10 hours in the textile industry and they could only work between 6 am and 6 pm. The working week was reduced to 56½ hours.
1886 – the Shop Hours Regulation Act attempted to regulate the hours of work of children and young persons in shops; the hours of work were not to exceed 74 per week, including meal times.
1891 - Factory and Workshop Act raised the minimum age for employment in factories to 11 years; prohibited the owner of a factory from knowingly employing a woman within four weeks of giving birth (her not him); and introduced some measures to control conditions of “outworkers”.
Forward to 1885AD
